The Great Gatsby (3D) (2013, Dir. Baz Luhrmann, Australia/USA) (Cert: 12a/PG-13) ***

 

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan

 

Nick Carraway (Maguire), a Mid-Westerner working on Wall Street goes to stay with his wealthy cousin Daisy (Mulligan) and her husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton). Shortly after arriving, Nick receives an invitation to a party held by the mythically wealthy and enigmatic J. Gatsby (DiCaprio). Nick soon becomes part of Gatsby’s world but when it’s revealed that Daisy and Gatsby had a whirlwind romance five years earlier, their lives spin out of control.

 

Director Baz Luhrmann has a way with film-making. His characteristic flamboyance and theatricality has previously served to adapt Shakespeare to the big screen with Romeo + Juliet (1996) and now, reuniting with his Romeo in Leonardo DiCaprio, Luhrmann turns his attention to arguably the great novel of the 20^th Century, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. As the title suggests, it is DiCaprio’s performance of J. Gatsby that really supports the entire piece for good or ill. The Gatsby character is an intriguing presence that doesn’t fail to be fascinating and is illuminated by DiCaprio’s charismatic presence. It does however take  a while for him to come on screen and the opening preamble towards this is noticeably limp; Luhrmann’s foibles and follies over-powering the atmosphere. Even the party sequences are a little over-stylised, utilising contemporary music to demonstrate decadence. It isn’t the first time such an idea has been utilised. Luhrmann himself made it the cornerstone of Moulin Rouge! (2000) and other examples range from BackBeat (1994) to Marie Antoinette (2006). The thing is, the 1920s was a decadent time already. Drug abuse was rampant in the party scene, people held parties of sex and debauchery and, generally, hedonism ruled every bit as much as it does now. Giving the film more realism will give it more dramatic weight. When the film becomes more faithful to the period it is a special film and it is visually gorgeous at times (even if the 3D seems an oddly inappropriate choice) but the whole product feels a little too Luhrmann-ised. However, as a result, if you liked Luhrmann’s early works, there won’t be much here to dislike.