A faithful, beautiful retelling of Fitzgerald's novel

Rating: 9/10 (28 September 2014)

This movie completely took me by surprise. I have a love for F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, and I was a bit skeptical about how the book would translate to the silver screen. But I can honestly say that The Great Gatsby was one of the most faithful book-to-film adaptations that I have ever seen. Luhrmann remained true to the book down to the colors of the character's clothing.The soundtrack was beautiful, the CGI and the costumes were gorgeous, the script was impeccable, and the casting was very smart. At first, I thought that Leonardo DiCaprio was nothing more than a heartthrob, a way to sell tickets. This movie changed my mind about him. Now, I consider Leonardo to be one of the greatest actors of our generation. He brought an edge to Gatsby's character as well as maintaining his sense of unwavering hope and his undying love for Daisy Buchanan. He played the character flawlessly. He was Gatsby. Now to review Carey Mulligan as Daisy. There is no doubt that Mia Farrow had the delicate beauty of Daisy, but Farrow portrayed Daisy as very ditzy. Carey Mulligan gave Daisy a backbone. She gave the character depth while still giving her a sense of naivetÃ© and girlishness. Before Gatsby, I had never seen Tobey Maguire in a movie. I thought he embodied the troubled character of Nick excellently while making him very lovable. Maguire made me love Nick's character even more. I hadn't seen Joel Edgerton in a movie either. But I thought he was the absolute perfect Tom Buchanan. Bruce Dern was a fine Tom, but he made him nothing more than a bigoted jerk. Edgerton brought more to the role, making Tom's objectives rational, and by giving him more dimensions than just racist and nasty. So in conclusion, thank you Baz Luhrmann. You brought the book to life in a way that I never imagined.