(USA/Australia, 143 min.)
Dir. Baz Luhrmann, Writ. Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel
Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Amitabh Bachchan.
Is Baz Luhrmann a film director or a disc jockey? He seems
to have adapted The Great Gatsby with
an excellent ear for creating a playlist of contemporary songs that speak
directly to the characters and subtext of the novel, yet very little about his
rock ‘n’ roll Gatsby seems to jive.
Turn the volume down, Old Sport, and find the magic of the story!
The Great Gatsby might
be one of the most unusual adaptations I’ve ever encountered. Luhrmann’s Gatsby is an odd sort because it’s one
of the most faithful page-to-screen renditions of a classic novel I’ve seen;
however, while Luhrmann realizes the text quite literally, his Gatsby asserts its contemporariness with
an in-your-face energy. Virtually every page of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
English-lit staple seems to have made the cut, so die-hard fans of the book
have little reason to complain. Likewise, readers who found the novel “boring”
in school can’t gripe because this take on The
Great Gatsby seems especially energetic. (Ditto those who yawned during the
Robert Redford/Mia Farrow adaptation of the 1970s.) Either this Gatsby is hopped up on goofballs or it’s
a by-product of contemporary media consumption where everything’s tailored for
the “glance effect” and short attention spans.
The first act of The
Great Gatsby could surely make or break one’s appreciation of the film.
Luhrmann introduces the classic tale with his signature bombast. As Gatsby’s famous voyeur Nick Carraway
(Tobey Maguire) reminisces about his Gatsby days and takes the story back to
the years of liquor and jazz, Luhrmann amps up the funk and introduces the
audience to Nick’s world via a high-energy montage of quick cuts and bass
beats.
Nick visits his cousin Daisy (played by a perfectly cast
Carey Mulligan) and her husband Tom (played by Zero Dark Thirty’s Joel Edgerton), and a few fleeting references
are made to the mysterious Mr. Gatsby before Tom whisks Nick off to the city to
party down with his kept woman (Isla Fisher). Luhrmann seems to use every
device imaginable to amplify the wildness of the party inside the small hotel
room of Tom’s extramarital affairs whether it’s slow/rapid motion, swish pans,
or frenetic editing. Mostly, though, Luhrmann tells the story by taking anachronistic
music and turning it up to eleven. The first half hour of The Great Gatsby, like the beginning of Moulin Rouge!, is a shrill, gaudy clusterfuck of sound and images.
The Great Gatsby comes
to life, though, once Gatsby himself finally enters the picture. Nick is
invited to one of his neighbour’s big sexy parties, where flappers rock out to
Jay-Z and everyone drinks as if they’re at an office party at Sterling Cooper
Draper Pryce. The music blares and Nick strains his vocal chords whilst
conspiring with friend and fellow society shill Jordan Baker (an impressive Elizabeth
Debicki) about the lore of their mysterious host. It’s only when Luhrmann
introduces the titled host, J. Gatsby (like Homer J. Simpson, the J. stands for
Jay), as he toasts Nick with champagne to some impeccably timed 3D fireworks
that this take on the novel finally starts to click.
The magic of Gatsby
comes from the spot-on casting of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. Charismatic
and built just right for a seersucker suit, DiCaprio feels like the perfect
actor to embody Fitzgerald’s iconic social climber. The actor who graduated
from teen heartthrob to high-calibre dramatic star offers just the right air of
familiarity to represent Gatsby’s struggle with the American Dream. DiCaprio
sees the Oscar like Gatsby sees the green light.
DiCaprio also seems to be one of the few actors in the film
who knows how to make a performance jive with Luhrmann’s stylistic flair.
Reuniting with the director after Romeo +
Juliet, DiCaprio gives Gatsby a skittish mania that plays in sync with the soundtrack.
It’s as if Gatsby uses the music to play up his charade with high society.
Mulligan, likewise, is a fine choice to play Daisy. She has
an innocence and a sense of naiveté to match the little girl of Fitzgerald’s
prose. Like Marion Cotillard in Midnight in Paris, Mulligan also looks perfectly tailored for the flapper garb on
Twenties. (As do co-stars Debicki and Fisher.)
Less successful, however, is the casting of Maguire as Nick.
This version of The Great Gatsby shows
what happens when a bland actor is assumes a boring role. Nick is mostly an
observer in The Great Gatsby (both
the novel and the film), so the part demands little aside from offering an
affectionate gaze and some narration in voice-over. Maguire seems to struggle
with these tasks, especially with Nick’s accent, so our Gatsby guide ends up draining the energy from the film, which is striking
if one considers how much Luhrmann spikes the punch. If DiCaprio is perfect as
Gatsby, then Maguire is to DiCaprio what Peter MacNicol was to Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice.
Maguire’s flatness is especially crushing for The Great Gatsby since Nick has
difficulty asserting his voice over the loud music. It’s hard to become
involved in this take on The Great Gatsby
because the energy and noise impede character development and narrative
flow. Luhrmann’s adaptation plays as if the director is more concerned with the
music of the film than with the story itself. The soundtrack simply overwhelms the film. The song selections are
excellent, if slightly on the nose, and they add a sense of timelessness to The Great Gatsby. Especially good are a
speakeasy cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” and the use of Lana Del Rey’s
“Young and Beautiful,” which plays as the theme for Gatsby and Daisy’s love.
Although the director’s panache gets the better of itself,
one can hardly call this a bad interpretation of The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s
vintage world is crafted superbly by costume designer and production designer
Catherine Martin, and the film glitters with a classic sheen that brings the
jazz age to life thanks to cinematographer Simon Duggan. The film actually
works quite well once Luhrmann cuts the music and lets Gatsby speak for itself. When DiCaprio and Mulligan allow Gatsby
and Daisy’s troubled romance to play itself out without having to compete with
Luhrmann’s relentless beat, the effect is much like a DJ at a club who abruptly
stops the music and lets the crowd seize the moment in the rest. It’s just a disappointment
that such a clear authorial vision doesn’t complement the novel as fantastically
as, say, Joe Wright’s audacious take on Anna Karenina transported the literary classic to new heights. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation
is certainly a good Gatsby, but,
ironically, it isn’t a great one.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Great Gatsby opens in wide release on May 10.
