A Unique Thing of Beauty

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2014)

Rarely do you find a love story told from the perspective of an outsider. This gives it an honesty which gives the romance a much greater rawness. Credit for this can only go to the great F Scott Fitzgerald, but who could deliver it better to our screens than Baz Luhrmann. I will never cease to understand how he creates false worlds on the screen which ooze greater beauty than real life. He manages to mesmerise us time after time, from seeing Gatsby in perfect definition despite the fact he is so far away, to the beauty of Daisy and Jordan in a room full of floating white curtains. The selection of modern music for a 1920s setting is so wrong but at the same time so very, very right. Another flawless performance by DiCaprio, Maguire and Mulligan. A star studded cast which brings both its talent and experience with it. Many a scene passes when the combination of sound, emotion, colour and definition makes you audibly say "Wow". As if we are looking at a majestic landmark; But we are in fact watching a moving picture which has, without our knowledge, become art.