With all the elements to be a great movie, not knowing how to use them the movie ends up failing.

Rating: 5/10 (14 February 2020)

"The Great Gatsby" (2013) is a film based on the novel "The Great Gatsby" written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, being honest I have not read the book, I do not know if it is very good or if even the film is better than this, but to tell you the truth I don't think so. When "The Great Gatsby" was released, it did not have much popularity, many people simply did not attract much attention and if the film really does not attract much attention, you may turn to see it twice because Leonardo DiCaprio is in the cover, but that's it, I doubt that most who have not seen it yet see it. In a nutshell the movie is about a writer who remembers his past, how he met the great Gatsby, in New York 1920. With that, the movie starts with Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) telling his past to a psychologist and here already We have a problem, this would be that, once you finish watching the movie, you realize that all that was totally unnecessary, it does not contribute anything to the plot, one believed that at some point this would stop narrating his life to continue with the plot in the present, but that never happens, Nick finishes narrating his past, then nothing really important happens and the movie ends, I say again that all that was unnecessary, it would have been better if Nick simply told the story without the need to use two time lines, and thanks to that the narrative ends up being not very good. But before continuing with the bad I would like to talk about the good, this would be that, although I said that the narration is not very good, I recognize that the way in which Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) are introduced is good , especially for the famous DiCaprio scene raising the glass. The 1920 rhythm music is very good, is used in a good way and does not feel so out of place. I also want to emphasize that photography is different, in the sense that it does not look very real but this does not necessarily have to be something bad, so let it be that it is different from the vast majority. The interpretations of DiCaprio, Mulligan and Bunchan are good, but especially that of Bunchan, it is clear to the naked eye that this was the one that gave more importance to his role. Do not mention Maguire because his interpretation of depressive alcoholic writer, fails in the sense that he has nothing left, but not everything is Tobey's fault, it is also the fault of the writers for not writing his character well according to his supposed personality, another problem with this is that Nick feels more like a spectator than someone who has an important role in the movie. The romance between Daisy and Gatsby feels somewhat flat because there is no background behind it, is that the movie only tells you "They loved each other a lot because I say so", I think it would have been more interesting if they told how it was love relationship between these two through a few flashbacks, yes, yes, there are two flashbacks but they don't endorse anything I just mentioned that the movie does wrong, I mean, one is about Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) speaking about how he already knew Gatsby, explaining that he was Daisy's boyfriend and the other talks about how Daisy and Gatsby kissed, as they see there is no background, nowhere do they explain how Gatsby managed to conquer Daisy, if they make you understand that their relationship was great, but they do not explain why it was great, and that is also why the characters feel so flat, or heavy in the sense that most of them are conceited to the point that you do not feel empathy For none of them, for example, the scene of Gatsby's death is supposed to make you feel something, but it does not, I read that many give the film a lot of credit just because Gatsby dies, and if it is always worth recognizing when a movie kills its main character, but as long as this is executed in a good way and that is not the case of Gatsby, I will put it in a nutshell, his death feels a bit forced, because the way is totally ignored in which George Wilson (Jason Clarke) managed to enter the mansion, when we had previously seen all the safety of Gatsby, so that any guy between this way and kill him, I usually do not put much weight on this type of thing, but In this case I will make an exception because Gatsby's death is a very important event for the plot. Then it seems somewhat simple (FLOJA) the way in which the "arcs" of the characters are closed, its end is no "WOW", I appreciate the metaphors like the green light, which represented the dreams that Gatsby always wanted to achieve but I never succeed, but that is not going to save the movie from being what it is. In conclusion "The Great Gatsby" is a film with an atmosphere that does not feel very 1920, with good performances, a good use of music, but with a structure of history not very good, and characters with whom you never really empathize , but at least I recognize the attempt of the film, to mix the drama with love, and to try to be a great production.