The Great Gatsby - The film Version

I’m not a fan of film adaptations of books most of the time, but when that book is high on my all-time favourites list I tend to be even more weary than usual. Add to that a rather bleak first attempt (in my humble opinion of course) and I was most definitely apprehensive about the recent release of The Great Gatsby.

Watch the trailer here!

For those unfamiliar with the book, the story follows Nick Carraway young and fresh out of college, as he heads from the Midwest to the dizzying pace of 1920s New York City. Here he is swept away in a fast pace era of loosening morals, bootlegging, parties, glamour and glitz. Carraway finds himself caught up in the messy love affairs of his cousin Daisy Buchanan who is stuck in an unhappy marriage and reacquainted with former lover, Jay Gatsby. As events unfold Carraway pens a tale of impossible love and unconquerable dreams. Despite the glamour the tale cumulates in a tragedy which throws light on a darker side of the American Dream, while holding the dream is altogether possible, realizing it is not always so.

In its favour the film was fast paced enough to capture the feel of the era with rarely a moment to pause or reflect as the story ran ahead as the viewer is pulled along in the excess and fervor of the story and a feeling of things beyond control. The party atmosphere was as bright and heady as Fitzgerald depicted, with each party oozing with extravagance and abundance, with vivid colour and liveliness.

Moreover certain scenes were conveyed successfully and really well at that. While the famous ‘beautiful shirts’ scene fell to ridicule in the first film, director, Luhrmann, avoided this managing instead to hit the mood spot on by capturing the depth of subtlety of emotion behind the scene. The costumes were also a strength of this particular production. While the men’s fashion was accurate and stylish, it was of course the flapper dresses I was interested in, and on this note the film did not disappoint. A dazzling array of flapper dresses and twenties fashion made for a visually pleasing production true to the extravagance Fitzgerald sought to portray.

However the production was not without flaws. I found the camera work odd at times. The opening in particular felt as though it was perhaps intended solely for the purposes of 3D viewing. A blurry shot of I’m not really sure what does not a great opening make! Something more serious was the casting of Gatsby himself, which left me a little conflicted. On one hand Leonardo DiCaprio was the perfect Gastby: handsome, charming and warm. Yet on the other he was Jack Dawson (from Titanic), and probably always will be. I also must take issue with the music. While the soundtrack was undoubtedly fun and catchy it was also, let’s face it, entirely inauthentic and in anachronistic. There was a distinct lack of jazz on offer, something the era is after all famed for. This was rather disappointing.

Ultimately, for me at least, there has always been something alluring beautiful about this book and the tragedy it holds. It’s more a feeling than anything specific one can articulate and as such while the film proved as visually dazzling and glitzy as I had hoped and imagined, to aim to capture this feeling is simply too ambitious a goal for the screen. In short then, the film was a much better attempt than the first and well worth watching for a feel of the of The Roaring Twenties, but in the end it fails to capture the luster and magic of the written form.

The film has received a bunch of mixed reviews, so do feel free to share you're thoughts if you have gone to see the film, or why not if you have decided not to!