A Great Gatsby for 2013

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2013)

Stories, especially famous ones, thrive on their retelling. Different artists can pick out different aspects of the tale or give it a particular slant or direction, rather like different singers produce idiosyncratic covers of the same song.The original always remains no matter what.
"The Great Gatsby" is a story of artifice: of a man who constructs an entire existence out of artifice with the sole aim of rekindling an artificial 'great love story' which exists now almost entirely in his own mind and romantic memories, who achieves it by living a lie designed by his sinister backers in order to further their criminal activities. One can see why Baz Lurhmann, relentless champion of artifice and un- reality, would be attracted to such a tale, even more so given that it is set within the debauched Jazz age, now virtually a whole centuries remove from us (while the more famous 1974 version was made when it was still living memory, equivalent to a tale today told about the 60s) and whose music and style still influences the current pop scene.
We have seen his own gaudy versions of classic love stories "Romeo and Juliette" and "Moulin Rouge", infused with over the top spectacle, cabaret dance numbers and modern music, yet also shot through with a very delicate romantic sensibility when dealing with the tragic loves at their hearts. "TGG" is also a tragic love story of course, but tragic for a different reason. Here the tragedy is not of two star crossed lovers who cannot achieve Earthly happiness because of social impossibilities yet hold the flame of love to death and possibly beyond, but of one man who dreams of a love story that cannot be and destroys everything including himself in the process of trying to vainly realise it. Such a story is much harder to pull of course, though it is a common enough theme in tragedy throughout the ages (and the headlines of almost any newspaper) and it is also harder to get behind the characters. We intensely will two ardent lovers to be together, but watching a farce played out by a fool and a selfish harlot is hardly going to stoke the fire in our souls!
To his credit, Lurhmann has created a version that is faithful to the original, both in spirit and narrative, and also created something that will satisfy as a cinematic drama, especially for those totally unfamiliar with the book or other versions. Of course it is "Lurhmann Style", but is not the gaudy vulgar 3D circus the rather unappealing trailer made it out to be. The CGI fuelled artifice works within the context of what he is trying to do because (A) It's a Lurhmann project and (B) as we said the before the whole story, and indeed the sub-strata of an entire age of gaudy artifice, accommodates such blatant un- reality.
The actors chosen to play the parts do so fairly well. De Caprio, launched to real fame by Lurhmann as the tragic young Romeo now plays the tragic 30-something Gatsby. Like Redford in 74, a modern superstar is needed to play a character that is glamour and success apparently personified (but is just an actor like the actor playing him!) and De Caprio fits that bill for 2013 audiences. He does well in conveying the basic sham under the glamour, being little more than a love sick adolescent who still hasn't grown out of it, a little boy still dreaming of being a Prince. He fares less well in creating an aura of power and success, but given that his sham is revealed almost immediately in this version (rather like the interestingly analogous Mandarin character in the current Iron Man) perhaps that was the intention. He nails the basic tragedy of Gatsby, the naïve dreamer still pining for his fairy-tale castle and fairy tale princess, so that crucial element works. Tobey Maguire plays Tobey Maguire again, just as he did through 3 Spider Mans, and his take on narrator Nick Carraway is still Peter Parker. However, given that he is meant to be an idealistic fool taken in by all the glamour even as it evaporates, his casting is spot on! Carey Mulligan, already a veteran of tragic love stories, does well as the elusive object of his obsession Daisy, who was never intended to be a particularly alluring or beautiful, but rather to be a symbol of everything that Gatsby aspired to. Joel Edgerton is also good as Daisy's brutish jock husband, finding a redeeming quality beneath the seemingly ugly character and making us care for him (his views on race and class, though distasteful to modern audiences, were actually the norm for intelligent educated people at the time) Short changed alas are the "Ash Valley" couple of Myrtle (Isla Fisher) and George (Jason Clarke) Wilson, who perform nicely but are reduced to mere plot points – This beautified version keeps the ugly poverty very much to the margins! Elizabeth Debicki is also very good as golf pro, sarcastic observer and Carraway paramour Jordan Baker, but her part has also been drastically reduced here.
The anachronistic music is part of the Lurhmann style so is what it is. This being aimed at young 2013 audiences, it gets the IDEA of party madness across well while still maintaining a sampled styling of 20s sounds. Delicately mournful ballads are also provided for the "tragic love" bits too of course, courtesy of the likes of Lana Del Rey, Emile Sande and Florence Welche.
As a dramatic film is works well enough, and will crucially serve as an introduction to a great (and still highly relevant) masterpiece and the great F.Scott Fitzgerald to younger audiences who may never have heard of either. For that alone it should be praised.