"DiCaprio is a joy to watch..."

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2013)

This year's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been long awaited. Aside from being one of the most famous novels of all time, it is directed by the glitzy and visual director Baz Luhrmann, and with Leonardo DiCaprio starring, it certainly had a lot of hype to live up to.
DiCaprio steals the show and, like Gatsby, keeps the film afloat when other elements seem doomed for the seabed. He is a joy to watch from his intriguing and captivating introduction to his desperate and destructive finale. Seemingly appearing out of thin air, with a past shrouded in mist and with, on the surface at least, an enviable demeanor and lifestyle, he pleasantly evokes Fight Club's Tyler Durden. Luhrmann has said his casting of Gatsby had to be a great actor and a star, and in a world where the star persona is regrettably being overshadowed by overnight celebrityism, DiCaprio is one of the last good guys standing, and the perfect choice for the role.
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan is also worth noting, in a role that really allows to her to use her innocence and natural beauty to great value, but unfortunately Joel Edgerton's performance wavers, while Tobey Maguire, hazy-eyed and naïve as Nick Carraway, seems to have unfortunately not yet grown out of his red and blue spandex from a decade ago. His voice-over becomes tiring very quickly, which unfortunately devalues scenes and takes centre stage when the audience would much rather be allowed the luxury of seeing a scene play out rather than have Maguire paraphrase for them. A strange and incomprehensible decision to bookend the film with a vignette of Carraway writing the story from a sanitarium distances the audience and adds another unnecessary layer to keep cutting back to.
We know Luhrmann is a fan of mixing contemporary music with period pieces- remember the rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit in his 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, but despite the great use of a Jay-Z soundtrack, in conjunction with the depiction of drinking and partying, it sometimes feels like Project X has gone back in time, and this cheapens an expensive, lavish piece. Gatsby's own parties are full of the grandiose extravagance we are expecting, but if only we hadn't been in the 1920s frat-style party ten minutes before, the effect would have been so much greater.
With pushbacks and a marketing budget bigger than Gatsby's annual spending allowance, there was obviously a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding the film. Unfortunately I'm not sure it has succeeded in fulfilling this expectation.
As I left the theatre, I was unable to put my finger on how I felt about it. Did it tell me the story of Gatsby? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes, partly. Did it make me feel anything? No, not really. And therein lies the problem. There is enough flamboyancy and large-scale magnificence for any Luhrmann fan to be fulfilled, but in a story of character and depth, this is not enough. The special moments in the film were burdened with a wearisome voice-over, and as much style as Luhrmann brought to the table with this offering, it seems he sacrificed substance. DiCaprio is certainly The Great Gatsby, but the film is simply The Gatsby.