The Great Gatsby

  The Great Gatsby is a transparently indulgent, excessive, grandiose, beautiful, bedazzling and a deeply sad film. I loved each and every sin... read more

 

The Great Gatsby is a transparently indulgent, excessive, grandiose, beautiful, bedazzling and a deeply sad film. I loved each and every single minute of it. The 3D is playful, the costumes are flamboyant, the visual effects are astonishing, the shots are vividly composed and the anachronistic music is resplendent. The green light and all that Baz makes up for a glorious celebration of a literary classic. This film is mesmerizing on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.

 

Let’s begin with the period it is set in. The 1920’s. You’d be making a mistake (of the many mistakes you could make of watching this film incorrectly), if you think it is “set” during the roaring twenties. That’s just the setting. The film is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, often remembered as the Great American Novel. There is a reason why it is called so. Every great thing is timeless. It resonates now, as it would back then. What resonates? The words? The story? The themes? What is it exactly that separates a well-written book from a great one? I think it is what it says about the human condition. An observation that holds true.

 

This film version is not exactly a definitive or quintessential adaptation but it is the best one. Moreover, it is better than being a mere adaptation; it is a cinematic interpretation. Baz Luhrmann, who took his own Moulin Rouge! (2001) as a template, has always opulently presented unfulfilled romances. Beginning the film with a dizzying theatricality and later slowing things down to unleash the melodrama. His Romeo + Juliet (1996) is a thing of beauty, Strictly Ballroom (1992) is as underrated as they come. It only makes sense that he would bring Gatsby to the screen in all its post-modern glory.

 

Luhrmann works with Leonardo DiCaprio for the second time and what we get is a true movie star performance. It captures the essence of the book with the mysterious introduction of the hero (almost half an hour into the film) only to reward us with close-ups in the final act that make him more of an enigma than he was before the film began. If you need one reason to watch the film, make that DiCaprio’s excellent performance.

 

Carey Mulligan is the perfect Daisy. Tobey Maguire plays the narrator, Nick Carraway who is also responsible for the biggest departure from the novel as he is shown to be the writer. This framing device irked me at first but later when Fitzgerald’s prose was being quoted and literally pasted on screen for us to see, I really didn’t mind. Amitabh Bachchan steals the scene he is in with his swag and iconic voice. With that voice, any accent could pass off.

 

The soundtrack of The Great Gatsby is so good it deserves another review. I had been obsessively listening to the songs before I saw the film. Some new songs, some old, some covered by new artists. The handpicked selections have resonance with the novel (Florence Welch screaming “Now there's green light in my eyes” in Over the Love). My ears were so accustomed to these sounds that I noticed how beautifully the score is composed by Craig Armstrong. The music from these songs is rearranged to become movie music. Some songs announce their arrival before they appear or after they have appeared they leave the fumes for us to bask in it. My favorite being the stunning ballad by Lana Del Rey called Young and Beautiful. Not to mention the fireworks synched to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

 

Exaggeration cannot be treated as shallow. The film could be mistaken as fluff, a show off. The same way our response to the titular character can be misdirected. Jay Gatsby believes in an empty fantasy: that love can be bought. What’s terrifying about this, isn’t that he just believes in it but acts on it elaborately and lives it every second of his life. There is no other character in the history of literature, music or film that could better embody the illusion of worldly possessions and romantic love. It makes hope look like a beautiful deception. It makes fools appear divine. Flaws? Yeah right.

 

While this film tries to unearth the essence of the novel and the characters. While it demonstrates Baz Luhrmann’s literary, visual and aural indulgences, what The Great Gatsby ends up offering is a giddy mosaic of cinematic magic.

 

view less

Watching The Great Gatsby made me constantly remember Bhansali and his Devdas and Saawariya. Mounted on a decisively and deliberate excessive visua... read more

Watching The Great Gatsby made me constantly remember Bhansali and his Devdas and Saawariya. Mounted on a decisively and deliberate excessive visual palate, The Great Gatsby is a pedantic glittery take on what is universally considered the greatest American novel. 

 

With the story of Jay Gatsby, the enigmatic centre of a dozen odd super rich bordering on the gaudy parties, looking to undo five years of separation from his love Daisy, while managing a career on the wrong side of the law, Baz luhrmann creates a world that is shallow, carefree, careless and self indulgent to the point of being perversely inhuman. Yet at the heart of the story is a sad heart wrenching love saga that peeps out from behind the blinding glamor all over the films two odd hour runing length.

 

Not exactly sticking to the book word to word, writers Luhrmann and Pearce weave in a visual metaphor to the universal timeless theme of the film, of fantasy and the will to make those fantasies true, the American spirit so to say. Surreal transitions coupled with a interesting and unique usage of 3D for a film that is not an action extravaganza double the preposterous outlandishness of the parties booze and loose morals of the time the film is set in, A brilliant musical score that is a sure shot at the academy awards this year is also as audaciously brave as is the visual lingo of Luhrmann's world. 

 

Despite the series of deleriously excessive jazz parties, one cannot but ignore the pathos laden innocence with which Gatsby tries to get back the love of his life, the reason behind all the glitzy life and parties he builds around himself, the shallowness of his existence. The innate childlike desrie and stuborn will to make up for the lost five years and for all the  moments he would fantasise of spending with the love of his life Daisy. Luhrmann chooses to make us view Gatsby's life in flashback through the eyes of Carraway, who sort of is the voice of history taking stock of the changing mores of American society through the tale of a lovelorn couple lost in the blinding gaze of seduction power money and ambition. 

 

DiCaprio as Gatsby is sauve, vulnerable and endearingly brash. He brings a believability to the role, making one feel for the pain the character goes through. Mulligan as Daisy is not the prettiest sight in the world yet is compelling, commanding submission to her charm and wit. Tobey plays a impish overseer with a distinct charm and aloofness making his presence felt despite an overbearing DiCaprio. Amitabh in his extra short cameo prooves his class as an international legend, making an impression wishing he had more screen time. 

 

What is the real hero of the film though is the distinct directors touch to the proceedings. Shallow pretentiousness masking pain and pathos was never this beautifully portrayed on screen A brave attempt that plays out with finesse and grandiose. Catch this in 3D and on the big screen, it is one of the best from Hollywood this year for sure. 

view less

As much as Luhrmann’s Gatsby revels in its unabashed, unsubtle razzmatazz, the film is rooted in the heart of Fitzgerald’s timeless sto... read more

As much as Luhrmann’s Gatsby revels in its unabashed, unsubtle razzmatazz, the film is rooted in the heart of Fitzgerald’s timeless story. Directed with glorious spunk aptly reminiscent of the bustling New York of the 1920’s – where the post World War 1 optimism led to Wall Street swinging upwards as seductively as its many women, Gatsby is an achingly romantic adaptation that is well-performed, emotionally stirring and heartbreaking to watch.

The character intricacies of titular James Gatz, undoubtedly the most important of the bunch, comes out as lucidly alive as his magnificent parties that boast of scantily clad women dangling from a spectacular ceiling, a flurry of exploding fireworks, champagne pools and among other things, dwindling morals. None of it, as predicted, makes us numb with its excessiveness but works as a parable of the booming 20’s in jazz-inspired America which eventually crumbled under the Great Depression in 1929. In that sense, the story of Gatsby became the story of America, something that Fitzgerald - already depressed with the populace missing the point of his novel – might have never foreseen.

Other than altering the narrative style to make it more dramatic, the film remains mostly true to the book going as far as quoting the lines instead of only paraphrasing or catching it in spirit.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays Jay Gatsby, whose sprawling estate remains a castle of mysteries, leading to speculation of vivid variety, with the outcome almost never coming out in his favor.  People enjoy his grandiose hospitality, but are too inadequate to return any of it. His intention is to capture the attention of his long lost lover – Daisy, married to a prosperous yet cheating golfer. She is cousin to Nick Carraway, the newest entrant in West Egg who is trying to capitalize on the upward trending bonds. How he becomes instrumental in uniting the lovers, who may or may not end up together, becomes the crux of the story that is otherwise rooted in the idea of hope, sacrifice, and unattainable ambitions.

It’s heavily romanticized treatment is hard to resist, and dislike for this template will come essentially from negating the idea of idealistic love: from people afraid to take the plunge, from people afraid to invest in the hopefulness that love, however difficult, manages to inspire. From the same very people of whom Gatsby is a fierce critique, if not an obvious one, a sure one. From the Buchanan’s of the filmdom.

The soundtrack is complicit in bringing out the film’s personality and its beautifully layered songs add depth and panache to the proceedings which are often full of tension and anxiety.

Tobey Maguire delivers his career’s best performance. As Nick Carraway, he is both – confused and clear, and perhaps has the most assured perspective on people around him. He is the middling road of the two extremes of excess and minimalism. And so is Leo’s Gatsby – his face and crisp shirts hiding a magnificent insecurity – a struggle to be a part of the greater society which he despises but subscribes to only because of the allure of the green light: a symbol of attaining the contextually impossible.

Even Bachchan as the scheming Wolfsheim is perfectly cast.  

 

Everyone's invited to the party. Join away, old sport. 

view less

The Great Gatsby is Baz Luhrmann’s fifth film. After Australia (2008) he is back with his regular collaborator Craig Pearce who has written a... read more

The Great Gatsby is Baz Luhrmann’s fifth film. After Australia (2008) he is back with his regular collaborator Craig Pearce who has written all his films except Australia . Luhrmann takes long gaps between his films so his film is always looked forward to for its visual splendor and the use of music.  Since I haven’t read the novel this film is adapted from I walked into the film without any thoughts of comparison.

 

 

Narrated by Nick Carraway ( Tobey Maguire)  The Great Gatsby is a love story between Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan)  who is married to Tom Buchanan ( Joel Edgerton). In the summer of 1922 when stock markets were booming and people were leading a party heavy decadent lifestyle Nick becomes the instrument that brings Jay and Daisy together again.

 

As expected Luhrmann crafts an orgy of visual beauty but fails in putting the heart into the love story.  Tobey Maguire is exceptional and his narration feels like you are attending a stimulating book reading session.  Thanks to the subtitles I could enjoy the poetic lines which I am told are same as the novel.  The last line is one of the best last lines I have read. Like Luhrmann’s  Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge the music lifts up the scenes and will make you relish the OST later  (it’s downloading as I write). With a running time of almost 2 ½ hours that too in 3D it doesn’t feel long or boring which speaks of how good the film is.

 

But, even with so much good going for the film it fails to move you and touch your heart.  Leonardo DiCaprio is a miscast with a ‘have seen him doing this before’ kind of a performance. Because of him the love story is half baked. Joel Edgerton’s character is the weakest and cliché ridden. Carey Mulligan is beauty personified and the good half of the love story.

 

 

This is Amitabh Bachchan’s first Hollywood appearance and thankfully with just one scene he makes a respectable debut. Anil Kapoor are you listening?

 

Word of mouth – The Great Gatsby is a feast to the eyes and ears but fails to reach out to the heart.

 

Rating - *** ½ (good)

 

Ticket meter – worth 200 bucks

view less

If you have not seen the movie before or read the book it would be a great movie.plenty of opulence and glitz...however if you have read the book o... read more

If you have not seen the movie before or read the book it would be a great movie.plenty of opulence and glitz...however if you have read the book or seen the robert redford version you will be surely disappointed...there is more glamour and glitz and the real story is neglected most of the time...the chemistry between gatsby and daisy is missing..try and see the redford mia farrow version it is much much better.. view less