Movie Review

The Great Gatsby. By Hamish Hardie

The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Lurhmann, is a new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel. When the movie started I felt like I was taking a break from my dull, modern day life and shown a glimpse into the colourful, care-free, exiting, glamorous, rambunctious and sometimes erotic world of the 1920s. Other wise known as the Jazz Period. Explosive colours and style coupled with dazzling camera work and pounding music left you gobsmacked as you watched uncontrollable parties rage through the night. Simply put, it seemed evident that the people of the 1920s were much, much cooler than us.

I felt a strong desire for days afterward to party with Jay Gatsby in his exquisite mansion. The storyline was intriguing, told from the point of view of Nick Calloway, (Tobey Maguire) a bond man working in New York, and living on Long Island, adjacent to the mysterious Jay Gatsby (Leonardo Dicaprio). He soon is sucked into the wild parties of New York and a complex love story involving Gatsby and Nick’s married cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan). I was relieved to find that the love story was not mopey nor tacky, but in fact was suspenseful, dynamic and interesting.

Having read the original novel I thought that the movie missed some finer points that could have made the story clearer. At the time, of course, I was to distracted by all the party scenes and Leonardo Dicaprio saying “old sport” to notice such trivial matters. In conclusion I think it was well worth one overpriced movie ticket and that it captured moderately well the flashy sophistication of the novel. I give it a rating of three and a half out of five.

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