Baz Luhrmann moves from roaring twenties to quiet love story, making for an odd mixture.

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2013)

Okay, here's the good news: Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" is not an embarrassment to F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is a glorious looking and very well-acted visualization of a story that generations have been forced to read in high school, yet it never boring nor does it ever feel like homework. The bad news is that Luhrmann can't find a tone to get to the heart of the story – he mixes and odd combination of musical elements and tragedy, and misses the subtleties that made the story work.
"The Great Gatsby" is, in essence, a haunted love story. It is told from the point of view of a man who stands at the sidelines, Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire), a writer in a sanitarium who tells his story to a doctor who suggests that his patient put his story down on paper (no points for guessing what his memoirs will become). He takes us back several years, back to 1922, just after The Great War, when he was living in a small house in West Egg, New York. Next door is a sprawling manor from which come raucous parties with hundreds of guests. Bands play, liquor flows, and every sort of taboo is broken.
The host is a man so mythical that most of his party guests have never even seen him. He is Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), an eccentric millionaire with a taste so indulgence that he has his name embossed on his marble floor as well as his furniture. He is a mystery, a man who reminds us a little of Charles Foster Kane, the difference being that his Xanadu is filled nightly with hundreds happy party-goers instead of a lot of empty space. He has the same wounded heart as Kane, only Gatsby's Rosebud isn't stuffed in a dusty basement, rather it remains in the deep chasms of his heart. His Rosebud is named Daisy (Carey Mulligan), who became the great love of his life before fate and circumstance pulled them apart. What's keeping them apart won't be spoiled for anyone who hasn't read the book. All that can be said is that in the best parts of "The Great Gatsby," we want them to be together. That's always the best indicator of a good love story.
There are two halves to this movie. One is a quiet love story, the other is the birth spring of The Roaring Twenties. These two elements are set against one another into a very uneven mixture. At once, the movie pops and rattles with color and music, and then it quiets down to get into the tragedy of the love story. Just as we are getting our motor revved up, we find that we have to down shift for the romance.
Baz Luhrmann is a brilliant craftsman, but he mixes a strange cocktail. Fitzgerald's book was about the dark labyrinth of Gatsby's wounded heart, but the tone of this film suggests something that would be more at home in a musical. Too often, Luhrmann gives in to his flashy indulgences – if you've seen "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" or "Moulin Rouge," then you kind already know what you're getting here. He gets us involved in the love story, but he can't resist giving into the temptation to get back to the pizazz. Those two elements don't really work together. The parties at Gatsby's house are more like a dance club than a free-flowing parade of humanity. Who are these guests? Why drew them here? What do they know of their host? The first third of the film is loaded with wall-to-wall visuals that are painted and perfected to the point that we never feel as if we're looking at the natural world. We are told that this is The Roaring Twenties, but his colorful visual palette suggests that it is merely an approximation of that era.
What does work are the performances especially by Leonard DiCaprio who keeps us at arm's length from Jay Gatsby. He remains an enigma whose story unfolds slowly until we come to understand why he is the man that he is. When his beloved Daisy comes back into his life, we feel their bond. Carey Mulligan, one of the best actresses of her generation imbues Daisy, not with a piteous weepiness, but with the heart of a woman whose life – she fears – has taken the wrong turn. It's all there in her eyes.
So, to recommend "The Great Gatsby?" It's an odd mix, a great looking film with great performances but an odd mix of raucous music and tragedy. You could do worse. This adaptation is good, not great.
*** (of four)