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The Great Gatsby Movie Review

The Great Gatsby is a 2013 historical drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan. It’s a problematic adaptation.

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“I hope she’ll be a fool –

that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world,

a beautiful little fool“

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The eponymous 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald isn’t really meant for the big screen treatment, so it’s only expected that we have never gotten a proper movie out of it. This one has a lot going for it, but it ultimately crumbled due to its many rising issues.

My main gripe with the movie has to be the acting. I simply found most of these performances very mediocre, which really impacted the emotional investment and the overall characterization to a devastating degree.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby is very mediocre. His way of talk is forced and not at all natural, thus the character suffered as he wasn’t nearly as memorable as in the book. Tobey Maguire is better as Nick Carraway and it was solid casting on their part, but still his performance ain’t all that great. Joel Edgerton and Jason Clarke are both so bad as very important Tom and George that they hurt the movie tremendously. Their accents are horrible and I could see that all of them were acting, which really destroyed this entire movie that otherwise had some potential.

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With that being said, the women are actually pretty good, certainly much better than the men. Carey Mulligan is surprisingly serviceable as important Daisy Buchanan while Isla Fisher is very good as Myrtle and Elizabeth Debicki is wonderful as Jordan Baker in an early role for her. All these ladies at least were believable as 20s socialites, and I wish I could say the same for the actors.

The story itself is pretty faithful to the source material as it doesn’t take too many risks with it, which was good as the changes aren’t really necessary in this instance. Still though, the emotional and dramatic impact of the third act was really blunted owing to its lack of true emotion, strong characterization and heart. The first act is the best one as it was promising, exciting and fun, but the rest was very disappointing.

The Great Gatsby is very strong technically speaking. Baz Luhrmann of ‘Moulin Rouge’ fame was actually a perfect fit for this source material visually speaking. I am talking about the lushness and luxuriousness of this world, which was very fitting to be portrayed in visual excess too, which is exactly what this gentleman did here.

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The cinematography is great, the sets are gorgeous, the costumes are lovely and the film’s overall aesthetic is very pleasing and exciting. It’s vibrant and exuberant in the best way possible. Although those musical scenes were very energetic, I found the inclusion of modern hip-hop music ridiculous. It made the movie more fun for today’s audiences, but not fitting for the twenties period at all. It was simply too modern of an approach.

Baz Luhrmann was a good choice to adapt the Great Gatsby as his visual excess perfectly fits the luxuriousness and opulence of this world, resulting in many great sets, costumes and vibrant sequences. However, the movie wasn’t particularly emotional nor dramatic as its impact was seriously blunted by its acting. Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Debicki were all pretty good here, but unlike the women, the men were mediocre, especially Leonardo DiCaprio, Jason Clarke and Joel Edgerton – all had terrible, unconvincing accents and ultimately gave far from natural, questionable performances.

My Rating – 3

You can get this movie on Amazon.