Susan Granger’s review of “The Great Gatsby” (Warner Bros.)
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous 1925 American novel, set in the sizzling, sexy bacchanal of Jazz Age New York, is now in the cinematic realm of Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann, who turned Paris’s Belle Epoque into “Moulin Rouge” and transformed “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.”
Narrated by wannabe writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), who ambivalently serves as observer and moral compass, the story revolves around the colossally illusionary, yet ever-hopeful attempts by his mysterious, party-giving, Long Island neighbor, self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), to convince his first love, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), to leave her philandering, polo-playing, elitist husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton), and marry him. Flashing an insolent smile is Daisy’s socialite friend, pro-golfer Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki), and there’s the Jewish ‘gambler,’ Meyer Wolfsheim (Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan).
On a deeper level, “Gatsby” explores inherited wealth, income inequality, social mobility and the tenacious pursuit of the American dream – issues that are even more relevant today as we seem to be constantly re-inventing ourselves. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation follows the 1974 production starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, an obscure 1949 Alan Ladd vehicle, and a lost 1926 silent with Warner Baxter.
Co-written with Craig Pearce, Luhrmann’s vividly intoxicating, 3-D version remains true to Fitzgerald’s original concept, intricately exploring human nature in many ways, but it’s far more glamorous and visually opulent than ever before, an exquisitely gaudy spectacle that’s musically punctuated by Jay-Z’s contemporary, hip-hop-fueled soundtrack. Production designer Catherine Martin’s lavish Art Deco style sets and haute couture costumes are awesomely ostentatious eye-candy embellishments, reflecting a comment Fitzgerald is said to have made to Ernest Hemingway about the rich being “different from you and me.”
Leonardo DiCaprio embodies the naively idealistic, obsessively romantic cipher known as Gatsby, who annoyingly calls everyone “old sport,” while Carey Mulligan’s frivolously fickle, golden girl flapper is more sensual and seductive than any previous Daisy.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Great Gatsby” is a sumptuous 7, emphasizing style over substance, filled with extravagant parties to which we wish we’d been invited.
