Soulless Glitz

Rating: 3/10 (12 May 2013)

A mainstream Hollywood movie for those who like superficial, pretentious movies. This film glorifies wealth, even if it has a few lines about how empty the rich's lives truly are. If you're like me and prefer European art-house and American independent filmmaking then this is one difficult viewing experience. The emphasis of style over substance is one of many problems for this Great Gatsby. It is visually dazzling, and there's music running through practically every scene (including bland hip-hop music in a period piece of the 1920s). But the acting is so artificial, so overwrought as to be almost cartoonish. DiCaprio sounds like Marlon Brando, with this strange accent. Completely emotionally uninvolving. I saw it here in New York City on the Saturday afternoon of its opening weekend in a packed theater and had the feeling that the audience thought, "Good but it tries way too hard to be something special" as we left the theater. And that's being generous. This movie's target audience is 12-27 year olds. Some tactless product placement. At times, this movie is MTVesque (and before you mistake this as a compliment, I mean this in a bad way). And finally, though it aspires to be a huge box office hit like Titanic, it surely won't manage to do so because it doesn't have the emotional impact that Titanic has. It's wooden and hollow by comparison. 3 generous stars: 2 for the visuals and 1 for the effort.