Almost the disaster I thought it would be...unnecessary dud

Rating: 4/10 (8 June 2013)

First of all, let me say that F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is absolutely one of my favourite novels. Additionally, though it has been years since I've seen it, the Robert Redford film was brilliant and I loved it. From the moment I saw the trailers for this version I was heavily skeptical. Heaven knows that someone like Baz Luhrmann needs to make things flashy and extravagant and put a modern twist on a classic story. He did some brilliant work with Romeo and Juliet nearly 20 years ago. However, I was worried and now seeing it it has been confirmed that his version of Great Gatsby is an excessive, chaotic, bright, jazzy mess that completely misses the entire concept of Fitzgerald's classic. The modern day rap music and remixes weren't awful but also weren't necessary either. The elaborate (and admittedly brilliantly done) set pieces of a bizarre almost apocalyptic New York and surrounding area seemed to just take away from a story that should be entirely character driven. The story does mostly follow Fitzgerald's story and yet at the same time completely misses its mark and the pacing felt off entirely. There is no doubt that The Great Gatsby is not an action flick or anything but parts of it dragged.
This is a talented group of people and yet, in my opinion, completely miscast and that includes the legendary Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio was so miscast as Gatsby and he tries so incredibly hard that it comes off as fake. If I had to hear him excruciatingly and awkwardly say "Ol' sport" one more time I was going to scream. DiCaprio is a brilliant actor as long as he has the right role and this was not even close to right for him. He was too young (or at least baby faced), awkward and didn't fit the bill. Same could be said for Tobey Maguire. I don't know why they chose to cast these baby faced actors for the film but it doesn't work. Maguire carries the film decently but just not good enough. Joel Edgerton is probably the best cast in his role as the abrasive, womanizing Tom Buchanan. He is definitely the most watchable and the most convincing in his role. Carey Mulligan carries herself well and certainly has this subtle sexuality that is perfect for Daisy and yet the character comes across as near boring. The chemistry between her and DiCaprio is okay but not timeless and passionate the way it should be between Daisy and Gatsby. The cast work well together but not as good as I think it should have been.
The single issue with this version of The Great Gatsby is that all this flash and jazz has been created without any thought to the true heart of the story. This story is all about greed, pride, obsession, and gluttony and the threads of each one of those is barely existent in this story. I'm actually very surprised that the film is doing as well as it is especially after being delayed for a year before release. One of the most powerful scenes in the original film was Gatsby's death and once again it is handled well, and powerful and its also artistically done. I simply felt that the cast tried far too hard and came across as unconvincing and the film had more modern glitz and glam than was necessary. The pacing was nearly excruciating at times as it stumbled through an otherwise classic story. I had very low expectations going into this and it met those low expectations but barely and did nothing to exceed them. 4/10