The Great Gatsby

One of the most anticipated films of the year has finally hit the screens. Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of the classic 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, has had fans impatiently waiting since last year, creating an immense sense of anticipation. It's brilliant, yet complicated, story tells the tale of mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his love story with Daisy, portrayed by Carey Mulligan.

A lot of hype has surrounded this film from day one, mainly due to its legendary status as a book. Baz Luhrmann's impressive track record has persuaded many, however his stylistic approach has been questioned by some. Its modern soundtrack, curated by none other than Jay Z, has created a mass of excitement for the majority of fans, although concerns have also been raised about its appropriateness in such a classic story. At each turn this film has split opinion, epitomised in its mixed reception at the Cannes Film Festival.

Personally, I lie on the positive side as I really enjoyed The Great Gatsby. It was always going to be an incredibly tough task for Luhrmann and his crew to assemble an on screen representation of such a legendary novel that's true beauty is in the subtext but I feel he stood up to the task magnificently, making the story his own. There are so many different ways to interpret the book, anyone who has read it will tell you that, so rather than attempting to cover all bases and please everyone Luhrmann instead took its extravagance and brought that to the forefront. A bold move, but one that I felt really worked.

The most striking feature of the film was its stylistic approach, unsurprising when you look at Luhramnn's previous projects. Honestly, it was a bit hit and miss for me. There were times when the dazzling colours and amazing landscapes completely immersed me, but in contrast to that some of the stylistic choices made created an dreamlike feel that I didn't really enjoy. For the most part though it suited the film and the atmosphere it was trying to create.

The Great Gatsby's biggest triumph in my eyes was its soundtrack. Admittedly I was slightly dubious when I initially heard that it was going with modern music, however as soon as I saw the advert featuring "No Church In The Wild" I was instantly convinced. Throughout the soundtrack was stunning, hardly any of the songs were didn't suit the scene to perfection and they all featured occasional flashes of jazz which was a nice throwback to the book. My personal favourite was Lana Del Rey's song "Young And Beautiful", which was stunning, but all the tracks were really brilliant and helped create a unique dimension to the film.

The casting was also a great success. As expected Leonardo DiCaprio turned in an amazing performance as Gatsby, going above and beyond what I'd expected and completely portrayed exactly what I'd envisaged  when reading the book. The big surprise for me was how impressive Toby Maguire was. I, like many others, was very skeptical upon hearing he was playing the Nick, the films narrator, but from start to finish I felt he was incredible. Carey Mulligan also put in a brilliant portrayal of female lead Daisy, bringing to life the constant mix of emotions that surrounds the character. Another impressive performance was by Joel Edgerton, who plays Daisy's husband Tom Buchanan. Again it was a casting choice that raised a lot of eyebrows, but he proved many of the doubters wrong playing to part flawlessly.

There were however a couple of disappointments. Personally I felt that the film didn't explore the relationship between Nick and Jordan, a friend of Daisy's whom Nick shares a romantic interest with in the book. Although this may not play a crucial role in the story, it does however offer a bit more substance and development to Nick's character which is something I think they should have given more time to. I also felt they over explained some of the subtle subtext that the book contains. It may sound snobby, or it may just be because I had to study the book at A-Level, but I felt that some of the symbolism should have remained unexplained therefor maintaining its openness to interpretation.

The Great Gatsby is a brilliant film, really brilliant, and it was definitely worth the annoyingly long wait. It was perfectly cast, it looked stunning, and the soundtrack was nothing short of spectacular. It fell just slightly short of my unreasonably high expectations, but this film is in no way a disappointment. It's one of the toughest tasks in the film industry to try and take an already beloved story and try to recreate it as your own, but it's something I think Baz Luhrmann has definitely achieved with The Great Gatsby. A really impressive film, definitely one of the best I've seen this year. Undoubtedly one to watch!





Written by Ash Davies