The Great Gatsby Film Review

“The Great Gatsby” (2013) Film Review

The 2013 movie adaptation of ‘The Great Gatsby” certainly steps out of the cozy boundaries of the novella of less than two hundred pages by F. Scott Fitzegerald with its gaudy attitude and fast-paced scenes that at the same time is quite picturesque and full of details reproduced to match the prose that has been written. Some lovers of the classic might be horrified at the big top-esque film that Baz Luhrmann has made it into, for this director is no stranger to flashiness and taking risks, as shown in his past films “Moulin Rouge!” and “Romeo + Juliet”; and the same desire in the both of them is still present in his installment of “Gatsby”: the want to capture the contemporary audience, even if it means losing some of the authenticity of the initial work in things such as dubious casting and the haziness of important points that Fitzgerald had made prominent in his book. With the many fanciful veneers that he has thrown on top of it, from the modern hip-hop based soundtrack to the much too extravagant galas filled to the brim with alcohol and the exaggerated razzle-dazzle of the Roaring Twenties, Luhrmann serves us our drinks in the form of a motion picture that stays close to the plotline that Fitzgerald intended, all the while garnished with avant-garde techniques that make it suitable for the 21st century, but not fully satisfactory for admirers of the original work.

We see the shadow of lavishness and opulence trying to blanket itself over the presence of poverty during the 1920’s through the eyes of fallible narrator Nick Carraway, who works as an only moderately successful broker at Wall Street during its more prosperous times. Nick is thrown into a whirlwind of affairs and secrets ...

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...less as each and every one of the characters do at one point during the story when their reveries begin to fade away, this being put in Daisy’s words from the film, just as fast as all the bright and precious things. The artistry in each in every scene is impeccable, the rushed feelings that they bring giving you the urge to come along with Nick and journey into the shrouded unknown where the green light of aspiration definitely does not shine for anyone.

This installment of what is considered one of the “great American novels” boasts its garishness through its stunning visual style, once again proving that Baz Luhrmann is not one to be subtle. Even though the defects of this film go beyond just mischaracterization, it seizes the essence of “Gatsby” with an iron fist: a glittering celebration of dreams and the ambitions that every human holds inside of them.