A Brutal Re-imagining the Author Never Requested

Rating: 1/10 (13 August 2013)

I'd heard some ripples about this and decided to check it out as I like DiCaprio. There was something a little off about it from the start - I've nothing against Toby McGuire as a human being and in some roles he seems a pretty decent actor, but I think he has that very distinctive kind of appearance that only really lends itself to very particular types of role - e.g. the jockey in Sea Biscuit. I don't think this was one of those roles though - he just didn't fit the character at all and some of the expressions he pulled were frankly a little embarrassing - maybe the director's fault, who knows. Simlarly I think Isla Fisher is a capable actress but she really didn't suit the part. Edgerton was better as Buchanan even though he too has an unorthodox appearance but I think he handled it well regardless. Clearly there was a bit of pro-Aussie casting going on here and it seemed a little unnecessary and misplaced given how many authentic American actors there are available.
What really murdered this film to the point where I had to turn it off was Baz Lurhman's self-indulgent attempt to remould an era he never lived in, but which the author did, in a dishonest way - an uber-flamboyant way, a way in which modern liberal values are rammed down our throats, and modern music grates against the action. I know some people will admire this artistic choice but I personally don't think that's what the author had in mind when he penned it and it made me nauseous watching it. Please don't mistake this for an anti-Luhrman rant - I absolutely loved his Romeo and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. And yes the former was also a re-imagining but one which obviously replaced the entire context of the story with another, rather than splicing in hand-picked elements; a re-imagining which I believe the original author would've actually approved of, unlike this. No, I've absolutely nothing against Luhrman, but his judgement was way off here for me.
It's a shame - I was really looking forward to this, but Luhrman's choices made it a very esoteric affair that precluded me from watching it. As such I found myself stopping the movie at about the half hour mark, which is *staggeringly* rare for me to do. I wasn't going to leave a mark because I didn't finish it, but as I wrote this I realised the sole reason I didn't finish it was because it was so bad - in my humble opinion.