It’s hard to find a more highly anticipated movie among 2013 premieres than “The Great Gatsby.”
Not only is the film an adaptation of one of the most beloved novels of all time, it’s also the latest piece by Baz Luhrmann, a distinguished film director famous for his slow tempo of one movie per five years. On top of that, the film is expected to give 38-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio a shot at his first Oscar, an award he has been nominated for three times, but has never won.
When it premiered at the 66th Cannes Film Festival on May 15, the movie received varying reactions from critics. Luhrmann advised them to judge based on box office sales. Kyiv Post, though, critiques the old-fashioned way, and will judge “The Great Gatsby” on merit.
Its actors hardly deserve any blame for the film being a peg below fantastic. DiCaprio portrayed a decent Jay Gatsby, developing his personality through dismay, false confidence and uncertainty to the state of absolute hope in the end. Carey Mulligan’s Daisy is just as disappointing as she should be, and her husband Tom Buchanan, played by Joel Edgerton, is fairly disgusting. Nick Carraway, the movie’s storyteller, was played by DiCaprio’s old friend Tobey Maguire, a perfect “good boy” type.
The movie opens with an impressive 3D shot of a lake with its surface slightly rippled. Later, shots of flying snowflakes and stars complete the dying beauty concept. And, actually, it does seem to be the main concept. Just like the makeup is sometimes too bright to flatter the lady wearing it, this movie is too beatified to avoid the suspicion of shallowness. To enjoy the movie, you have to get rid of these thoughts. But it’s a hard thing to do when the film itself is about shallowness.
The movies’ soundtrack is unexpected, even jarring. While many fans of the book mention the Jazz Age when referring to The Great Gatsby, Luhrmann leaves jazz entirely out of the movie. Instead, his adaptation is filled with modern pop music. One of the Gatsby’s lavish parties is accompanied by sounds of hip hop, another one by Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” That is not something new for Luhrmann, whose “Moulin Rouge!” (2001) movie was full of pop and rock compilations and potpourris.
The feelings of operetta that “The Great Gatsby” gives can be either digested successfully by viewers, or ruin the movie for them. At some point, soon after the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy, Mulligan and DiCaprio run around Gatsby’s mansion to Lana Del Rey singing “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful.” That is the moment when one’s cup of fakeness comes close to spilling over. Perhaps the adorable curl bouncing on DiCaprio’s forehead at that moment will make up for it, but there are no guarantees.
Currently, no theaters run “The Great Gatsby” in English in Kyiv. See the Kyiv Post online Going Out Guide for the schedule of showings in Ukrainian at www.kyivpost.com/lifestyle.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
