The Great Gatsby- Baz Luhrmann's Disastrous Focus on Lavish Style Over Substance Results in a Disparaging Adaptation of Fitzgerald's Novel

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2013)

There is certainly a timeless allure to the thin yet dramatically perceptive novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald that keeps bringing failed attempt after failed attempt to cinematically adapt its feverish tale of love amidst the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties. No one has ever really captured the novel's delicate intimacy, the time period's extravagance versus dispossession, or the thematic criticism of American decline in full leaving behind unfulfilling experiences much like with Jack Clayton's 1974 version, which starred Robert Redford in the illustrious title role. But no matter how ineffectual previous versions have been none are more misguided or more disastrously disappointing than director Baz Luhrmann's latest disparaging adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." Known for his excessively animated flair in films such as Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet Luhrmann has always been the subject of interest in all of his films making them megalomaniacal exercises in overindulgence. One can ultimately imagine that this type of self-aggrandizing filmmaking would be drastically inappropriate for an intimately constructed story such as "The Great Gatsby," and that assumption proves correct in more ways than one. Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby becomes a divisive clash of tonally inconsistent scenes where the slim moments of dramatic sincerity are lost through the high energy chaos that is the Luhrmann style wasting a great deal of the novel's potential modern relevance. All of the poignant themes and dramatic sensibility from the novel are lavishly overstated through overly vibrant camera-work, disorganized editing, and disconnected performances distorting the very values that the original novel intended to highlight. Luhrmann's cliff notes grasp of the material translates into an incredibly hollow and artificial experience where the glitz and glamour of the time period receives the utmost detail in glamorous 3D while the characters slip away into one dimensional obscurity. In this version of The Great Gatsby it becomes increasingly hard to beat on, boats against the decadent current, borne back ceaselessly into wasted opportunities.
Read more: http://wp.me/py8op-y9 More reviews: Generationfilm.net