The Alright-but-had-potential Gatsby.

Rating: 5/10 (12 May 2013)

The first thing I'll make clear is that I adore the story of the Great Gatsby. I was entranced by F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel when I first read it in high school, and have kept a copy ever since. When I saw that a modern movie was to be remade, I got excited. When I heard that the enigmatic Mr. Gatsby was to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio, my imagination leaped. DiCaprio has proved himself to be a competent actor to me with films like Inception, Shutter Island and the more recent Django Unchained. However, when I read that Baz Luhrmann was slated to direct, my doubts started to creep in. Although I admire Baz's colorful style and creativity, upon first viewing it occurred to me that his eye-popping circus choreographic chaos technique of directing wasn't appreciated for this film. The Great Gatsby is a story of human emotional suffering, which is a subject that deserves long, somber shots that stare into the actors' eyes, and Luhrmann's attention-deficit-disorder approach to directing didn't capture it too well. Especially in the first half of the film, his constant jump-cutting combined with his own and Pierce's script did not work for me. It's such a shame, because the second half of the film progressively worked for me. By the time the film finally slowed down to necessary pace, it was over. The actors in this film are a delight, but two stood out specifically to me. Leo DiCaprio did a wonderful job as the enigmatic Gatsby. Even in spite of the directing, Leo did his best to stretch the emotion of his character to its maximum. The other actor, to my surprise, that I found genuinely enchanting was Joel Edgerton. Considering the only other film I know him from was The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Edgerton here is a teeth-gritting presence, a man who perfectly reflects the character in the book. He reads his lines here with such conceitedness, such arrogant confidence that this character would have, and I truly enjoyed it. I'd hope he gets consideration for Best Supporting Actor. Overall I'd recommend going to see it because the story itself is fairly represented in the film, and it isn't your typical 2010's superhero movie, thank God for that.