Makes One Want to Avoid Book at All Costs. Serious Razzie Contender.

Rating: 2/10 (30 August 2013)

Occasionally one comes across the movie version of a novel that makes one anxious to read the book - Brideshead Revisited comes to mind. This picture on the other hand makes it clear why, more often than not, book lovers are hesitant to even see movie versions of beloved books: it's not pleasant seeing ones dreams treated poorly. Baz Luhrman, here, seems determined to turn Gatsby into a grotesquely mannered pop-cgi cartoon opera. Our minds and hearts are assaulted by old roadsters flying through busy streets at three to four times their normal speed and a horrific soundtrack of amped up contemporary sounds including hip-hop. The acting is so arch/over-the-top that one finds oneself actually looking away in embarrassment. The actor's facial gestures, DeCaprio's in particular, are at times so extreme and unnatural that one wonders if Luhrman were trying to get them to appear as tho they were in a silent film from the era. Yet we're expected to pick up the emotional ball when's things become truly serious. We're meant to feel for these marionettes. Amazing costumes and sets tho. Tour de force in that era. Ditto fireworks and photography. So this is the $100 million Saturday morning cartoon version of Gatsby...could be collecting multiple Razzy Awards.