Fitzgerald as rap video

Rating: 1/10 (14 July 2013)

The jury has been out on Baz Luhrmann for a long time. A lot of people were won over by the quirky combination of Claire Danes + Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Romeo + Juliet'. Others (myself included) were taken in by the sheer over-the-topness of 'Moulin Rouge'. I recently saw that again and found that it has aged badly. But, I decided to give 'The Great Gatsby' a chance, anyway. I figured, why not? What have I got to lose? Well, apart from the admission price and a few hours of my life, I find that my good memories of the book and of the 1974 version (Robert Redford, Mia Farrow) have been permanently compromised by this piece of rubbish. Let's start with the casting: Tobey Maguire was a mistake, Carey Mulligan was a big mistake, Leo is good. On to the special effects: atrocious! You'd think with this kind of budget, they could do a decent chroma key. Finally, the so-called production design: oh my god, how could they do this to Fitzgerald?!?!?! The whole picture is like an extended hip-hop video, complete with extras and music from more than one specimen of the genre. If someone had only told me that the executive producer is Jay Z, I might have had a chance of saving my time, money and self-respect. Fitzgerald did not deserve to be so rudely travestied. The jury on the Luhrmann case is in: guilty of being a hack.