First things first: this is a visually stunning adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.
The story about loss, longing and material excess must have been catnip to flamboyant director Baz Luhrmann whose ‘Red Curtain Trilogy’ employed dance (Strictly Ballroom), Shakespearian language (Romeo + Juliet) and song (Moulin Rouge) to heighten the atmosphere of his unique universes.
Here, Luhrmann has Fitzgerald’s words to guide him. However, it seems to me that he’s too literal in his approach. He puts Fitzgerald’s prose on screen, the words swooping out at the viewer in surreal 3-D. At times, the whiff of gimmickery is over-powering. Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio are brilliant as the flighty Daisy and enigmatic Gatsby, but Luhrmann doesn’t give them much dialogue. Their brief interactions are constantly interrupted by a miscast Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway. Emotionally and intellectually, it’s all tell, no show. Still the action hurtles at a break-neck pace and Luhrmann’s ringmaster sensibilities come to the fore during the wild, kaleidoscopic party scenes, which incorporate hip-hop artists such as Kanye West and Jay-Z. His gift for spectacle is perfectly suited to the bacchanal of burlesque, Charleston and champagne. A beautiful but ultimately empty spectacle...