The Great Gatsby

Director: Baz Lurhmann

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton

Plot: Upon moving to New York to make his fortune on Wall Street, Nick Carraway finds himself increasingly drawn in to the mysterious world of his rich and enigmatic neighbour, Jay Gatsby

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Say what you will about The Great Gatsby, it is clearly a work of singular vision.

For this alone we can be grateful as it hopefully means there are no other film makers out there who will give us a film as ill-judged as this.

I do not know if I have previously witnessed a greater mismatch of style and content but if I have, I am glad to have forgotten it.

Like one of the garishly coloured cocktails being served at Gatsby’s parties, it is as sickly to behold as it to consume and they didn’t even have the decency to serve it in a small measure.

It puts spends so much energy in attempting to dazzle you with its audio-visual ostentation from the off-set that it doesn’t allow you to even remotely engage with the characters, meaning that by the time it calms down a bit and tries to actually tell the story, it is almost impossible to care. The result of this is a second and third act that drag unforgivably, despite most people probably having had enough at the end of the first.

The styling is like a more cartoonish version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit but with none of the wit which tempered that films mania. The performances are a mess of mannered histrionics which make you feel bad for the actors involved. There is no doubt the cast are playing the roles to the best of their abilities under the given direction, it is just unfortunate that said direction was so misguided in this instance.

Whilst similar endeavours may have worked for Romeo and Juliet, a story so timeless it can adapt to almost any style, and Moulin Rouge, a film where the style was the story, a work like The Great Gatsby is clearly its own beast and Baz Lurhmann’s attempt to make it his own has proven an artistic disservice on every level.

You can imagine that when it was conceived, he was aiming directly for the sublime, unfortunately in delivery he has landed squarely in the ridiculous.

Also Watch: To remind yourself that Baz Lurhmann is a talented film maker who can use style to a films advantage as opposed to its detriment, I recommend revisiting Romeo + Juliet. It remains a powerful telling of the story and was the first film to make me appreciate a Shakespearean text. Far superior soundtrack as well.