So Much Better Than I Expected!

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2013)

I refused to see this movie when it came out, because I'm still having nightmares from seeing the Robert Redford version "in my younger and more vulnerable years." I also saw MOULIN ROUGE and I could imagine only too clearly what Baz Luhrmann was going to do -- two hours of kaleidoscopic madness in day-glo color.
Much to my surprise, this new version of THE GREAT GATSBY, while not great, is far from terrible. Oh, there were a few horrible slips that made me grind my teeth. Like when a cheerful flapper says "Gatsby's cousin to the Kaiser -- you know, the evil German king." Thanks for the history lesson, Hollywood! Or when Klipspringer is changed from a poor, hungry boarder who plays the piano to a glam-rock version of The Phantom Of The Opera. That was horrible! And it was exactly what I was expecting from Baz Luhrmann.
But there was so much that I didn't expect. I never thought Leonardo DiCaprio would nail Gatsby so completely. He didn't get stuck on the handsome war hero stuff, like Robert Redford. He went deeper. He got the nervousness, the restlessness, the sense that this guy knows he's a fake and is scrambling to keep up with a dream that's getting farther away from him by the second. I thought Carey Mulligan was wonderful as Daisy, too. Every time she seems too shallow and silly to be interesting there's this flash of terrible sadness in her beautiful brown eyes that shows us that this Daisy knows she can never have Gatsby. And that she doesn't deserve him. Oh, and when Daisy delivers her famous line about crying over Gatsby's shirts, Carey makes that work too. It's not her fault idiot-boy Baz has Nick rush in to explain that she's sad over "five lost years." Thanks for clearing that one up too, people! I also want to mention that Joel Edgerton was an amazing Tom Buchanan, if anything maybe a little too sympathetic and likable. The fact that he breaks Myrtle's nose is given much too little attention in this version. But Tom's racism is handled with grim frankness and is totally authentic. Newcomer Elizabeth Dabecki is perfect as Jordan Baker -- the moment when she tells Nick "but it wasn't a coincidence at all," is really heartwarming and hopeful, just like in the novel. I wish we'd seen more of this Jordan. It's interesting that Baz changes the ending so that Nick ends up babbling in an asylum like a refugee from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but he can't rustle up a happy ending for Nick and Jordan.
That would have offended me a lot less than having Nick explain what Daisy means by saying "it makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts." I got what she meant just fine.
Oh, and why does Klipspringer have to play Bach on the organ instead of "Ain't We Got Fun" on the piano? Because it's cooler? Please!