Beautiful adaptation that goes down like champagne

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2013)

Although I've only read The Great Gatsby twice, both in school, I connected with it instantly, and it's stuck in my mind ever since, which is something a lot of stories don't get to do. One of the most striking things about it, in my opinion, is how mercurial it is: the ecstasy of a party at Gatsby's mansion lit by fireworks is always measured by a profound sense of loneliness and despair. This is a world where happiness is fleeting and sincerity and truth are rare commodities.
So, with that being my impression of the book, I was thrilled to hear that Baz Luhrman was directing a new film version. Just as predicted, he lets the words of the book literally shine through everything else (as in, they're right there on the screen), and his decadent, hectic style is ideal for the world being depicted. The intro of the film is classic Luhrman, beginning in grainy black and white, before exploding shortly thereafter into tinted newsreels on fast forward, with Jay-Z's rhymes over the images. The party scenes are somewhat reminiscent of his opus, Moulin Rouge, complete with anachronistic music rearranged for a jazz orchestra. One favorite moment was the soundtrack fading from an anachronistic hip-hop/electronic jam, to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" to accompany a fireworks display. Lana Del Rey is also a perfect fit for the movie's soundtrack, with her bluesy voice and lyrics about sadness in the midst of excess. The fast cuts that Luhrman is so fond of almost have the flickering effect of an old film reel on fast forward in here, and the over-saturation of colors is reminiscent of a black and white photograph with bright pigment added in. More importantly, the novel's visuals carry over much better in film; anybody sick of hearing about the green light while reading may appreciate it better when it's in front of their eyes.
As for the way the source material is treated, the only criticism I can honestly come up with is that, when it comes to past adaptations, i.e. Romeo+ Juliet, while the director kept the source material the same, he tweaked the setting and context of them in a way that made them interesting and new. With his version of Gatsby, he is faithful almost to a fault. Dialogue and narration are borrowed almost word for word, and the voice overs from Tobey Maguire's Nick, while an effective display of Fitzgerald's poetic language, become overbearing, and often redundant. When the audience can see the look in an angered Gatsby's eyes, they can interpret for themselves that he "looked like he just killed a man."
While there are some striking visuals in this film, it only feels like a Baz Luhrman picture for the first ten minutes or so. Our introduction to the Buchanans, Myrtle Wilson and her social circle, and to Nick himself play in that fast-paced, cartoonish style that the first half of Moulin Rouge had, which can give you a headache. Not that such a style is advisable for any film's whole running time, but as the story progresses, the film's pace slows down, and it starts to feel more like a mainstream movie than an art film.
In a certain sense there's not a bad thing, if the purpose is to focus on character development or story. But the story, while heavy with themes, is empty of much plot, and the whole point of characters like Daisy, Tom and Jordan is precisely that they ultimately don't have a lot of depth. The film solves this somewhat by imbuing Daisy with more warmth than in the book, and focusing on her relationship with Gatsby. In a strange way, at least for me, it almost became the story of her loss as well. Just as Gatsby is too stuck in the past to move forward, she doesn't see a way to go backward, and the audience sees her fear and uncertainty in everything she does. While ultimately still a shallow, careless person, Carey Mulligan's performance creates such a sweet persona that it's not hard to imagine how men could believe that they're in love with her. What I expected to be the weakest part of the film- the love story and relationships between characters- turned out to be the emotional core of the whole thing.
In addition to the visuals and script, the cast of The Great Gatsby is incredibly strong, embodying iconic characters on a spectrum of competent to amazing. Leonardo DiCaprio's Jay Gatsby conveys both the charismatic showman (complete with an affected New England accent) and the nervous, awkward youth, delusional in his obsession over his lost love. I didn't find anything wrong with Tobey Maguire, except that Nick comes off much more snarky and self-aware in the novel, and here he seems much more naive and swept up in it all, which is supposed to make his eventual depressive state more poignant. As a framing device, it's highly effective, drawing a parallel between F. Scott Fitzgerald's life and the fictional life of his author avatar, which creates a synergy between source and adaptation. The title of the film/book even appears superimposed on the green-lit fog at the end. As a fan of the book and the director, I loved watching it, but I understand why it's so polarizing, since most people tend to dislike one, the other, or both.
The phrase that best sums up The Great Gatsby for me is the old chestnut, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." It's a poignant and melancholy story about lost opportunities, and reaching for the moon before realizing how lonely it is at the top. Finally, an eclectic adapter of well-known stories has found a perfect match, in a gilded star-crossed love story with a hollow center that stays in your mind long after it's ended, like a forgotten dream.