Give Fitzgerald a break and try not to think of him when you watch this

Rating: 1/10 (12 May 2013)

This movie is DOA, a victim of the colossal misjudgment of whoever thought The Great Gatsby would be a suitable vehicle for 3-D special effects and tried to turn it into a showcase for them. At best they add nothing to this subtle and complex classic and at worst they distract the viewer from the novelist's intent, masking every other theme of the novel behind a garish attempt to overwhelm the viewer with with a stylized vision of the roaring twenties. The actors struggling to compete with this distraction and bring Fitzgerald's characters and themes to life are at a serious disadvantage before they even appear, and Leonardo DiCaprio simply isn't up to the task. His seems to be alternately trying to channel Robert Redford and Marlon Brando, the former being an improvement and the later a particularly inappropriate source of confusion about the character. Gatsby is supposed to be an enigma, but this is ridiculous. And when those resources seem unable to sustain him, he drifts off into something more reminiscent of Orson Wells, an impersonation that is way out beyond his ability, though in harmony with his bloated and dissipated appearance. The silly device of scattering bits of text into the snow or rain and then assembling them to float in front in front of the screen is no competition for Sam Waters sensitive reading of the same texts. The interjection of a psychoanalytical frame story to explicate Nick's character would be totally unnecessary if a more suitable and capable actor than Tobey Maguire had been cast. I went home and watched the 1974 version, which I had underestimated. In contrast Sam Waters, Robert Redford and Karen Black were nothing less than brilliant. Poor Fitzgerald. What a disservice. But the novel is pretty much indestructible and will live to fight another day, even if it lost this battle.