The thing is, I’m
not so sure. I love Fitzgerald’s novel, as in, really love it and I was so
excited about this film. It’s funny because it’s exactly what I expected it to
be and yet still somehow I came out of the cinema feeling oddly disappointed. I
am aware this makes no sense.
Is it amazing? No.
Is it terrible? Also,
no.
It falls somewhere
in between and I can’t quite put my finger on why that should be. I think maybe
it’s because it’s been such a long time coming and there’s been so much
build-up that I allowed myself to have ridiculously high expectations. Perhaps
I just set myself up for a fall.
It stays faithful to the novel, which I liked – and I loved
how they kept Nick’s narration, (although the flash forward from the action to
Nick’s random therapy sessions felt a little bit jarring sometimes, and the whole
typing out of the story, erm hello Moulin Rouge reference.) There’s plenty of Fitzgerald’s original content and
dialogue in there too, which I also liked so what did I not like?
Baz Luhrmann obviously has a particular vision and a
particular style of directing which has served him well in the past. Take a
look at Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge: he is not aiming
for subtle. I adore Moulin Rouge. It’s a spectacle, the story is a spectacular spectacular and it makes perfect
sense for the film to be one too. It’s so flamboyant and so over the top and so
unique that it’s wonderful. I wonder if Luhrmann has tried to recreate that
here when in actuality Gatsby doesn’t need that; sometimes, like here, less is
more. It felt like too much sometimes. It felt like Luhrmann was actually
trying to recreate what he’d done with Moulin Rouge and that frustrated me
because The Great Gatsby could have been great
on it’s own merits if given half the chance. Also, the modern hip hoppy
soundtrack, which whilst fabulous in it’s own right, didn’t work for me. I felt
like the film tried too hard and in doing so took away from the actual story it
was trying to tell. I felt like I was
being bombarded with these bright over the top visuals and it made my head
spin. That said, parts of it were glorious: I loved loved loved the costumes, practically squealed
at them and at times the portrayal of New York in the 1920’s made me very
happy: you could really feel the vibe, especially in the party scenes.
I was unsure about Nick: film Nick is much more innocent
than book Nick, he wanders around these mental scenes of excess looking awed
and overwhelmed and almost childlike whereas he isn’t like that for me in the
book. Also, the party Tom takes him too, when he meets Myrtle, that was all
wrong – Nick’s a little sneery at that party; he’s a little judgemental of
Mrytle and her sister. He looks down his nose at it all, he doesn’t think ‘oooh
wow a party. I’ve never been to one of those before GIVE ME ALL THE ALCOHOL AND
ALL THE WOMEN.’ He leaves with a man.
I think Nick is one of my main issues with the film actually. I don’t know if
that’s down to Tobey Maguire or the direction he received, but it annoyed me
nonetheless. Nick is more worldly wise than the film shows him to be, he’s
tougher, he’s not a shrinking wallflower and it’s Gatsby he views through rose-tinted
glasses and not the whole world. He isn’t
that naïve. The way Nick is portrayed has a knock on effect when it comes to the rest of the film and that is an issue.
Talking of Nick and Gatsby, I always thought Nick was gay,
or bisexual: he’s clearly in love with Gatsby (The first time I read the book I
remember thinking, in my best Chandler Bing thought-voice, ‘Jeez Nick, could you
be any more in love with him?’ ) and
there’s the implied night he spent with the guy when he goes to the party with Tom
and Myrtle. They meet at the party and later leave together and whilst it’s
never explicitly stated that anything happens, there is a lapse of time, and
the next time we see Nick and this chap Nick is standing beside the bed and the
other man is in it, wearing only his underwear *shrug*
I don’t know if it’s just me, or if it’s a common interpretation,
because I’ve never spoken to anybody about it at length but to me, Nick’s
sexuality and his feelings towards Gatsby always seemed perfectly obvious. The
bedroom scene isn’t in the film, interestingly enough and Nick is shown with a
woman so maybe it is just me, but a lot of what Nick says throughout the book
about Gatsby has been kept in, and whether you view it as platonic or not, that
whole relationship interests me as much in the film as it does in the book.
Nick is the ultimate unreliable narrator because his feelings for Gatsby make
it hard for him to see the other man as anything but great. He can’t see his flaws and if he can he doesn’t
care, he wants to see the world the
way Gatsby sees it, he wants to be a part of that blind optimism and hopeless
romanticism, feels it probably himself, about Gatsby and as the reader, (or the
viewer) your own opinion of Gatsby is shaped by that fact. It’s less obvious in
the film, or rather, whilst he is still massively unreliable you feel like Nick’s opinions are based more on his
general naivety than his feelings about Jay specifically. Maybe that's why
you feel a little less sympathetic towards Gatsby? It’s easier to see Gatsby’s
flaws because you’re not as naïve as Nick seems to be. Does that even make
sense? It does in my head!
That said, Leo was great as Gatsby. I happen to think
Leonardo DiCaprio is a very good actor, and
I really think he did well here. Some of his scenes were golden – waiting to
meet Daisy for the first time, although the set up was verging on ridiculousness,
Leo really expressed Gatsby’s vulnerability. The scene where Gatsby walks into
the room and sees Daisy for the first time was lovely in it’s simplicity and
they kept the ‘I’m certainly glad to see
you again’ exchange so hurrah for that. The following scenes with Gatsby and Daisy
together were achingly touching and the final showdown between Gatsby and Tom
was so tense. Leo played Gatsby’s slowly crumbling façade perfectly so that
when he finally loses it you can totally understand Daisy’s – and to a lesser
degree Nick and Jordan’s – horror.
It’s not the best film, it’s not the best adaptation and
yes, I was disappointed but still, I’m glad I’ve seen it.
