I went to see The Great Gatsby with great trepidation. I was not one of the fans of the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version, but I am a great fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Carrie Mulligan. While I liked Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, I couldn't picture that style as the framework for Gatsby.
Well, I totally bought into the film.
Whereas Redford and Farrow only convinced me that their acting range was actually quite limited, DiCaprio gave a very nuanced role that brought out both Gatsby's mystique and his hidden lower class origins. Mulligan's Daisy was funny, blissfully unaware of the damage she did in others lives.
In previous versions, the character of Nick has been nondescript at best. Here I found Toby McGuire's character interesting in his own right.
In Moulin Rouge, some of the magic of the film were the panoramas of Paris and the famous windmill. Here, the early part of the film gradually clarifies images from 1920s New York into the modern film. The party becomes one of the memorable moments in the film, showing outlandish expense lavishly spent on Gatsby's attempt to seduce Daisy and her husband to come across from the bay and join him on his Long Island estate.
Gatsby's pink suit from the book is beautifully rendered in a subtle pink/mauve tone with sets off DiCaprio's blonde hair.
I worried that I would hate the music since it sounds very modern. Actually it was felt to have reinterpreted the 1920s jazz sound and never felt discordantly modern.
The Great Gatsby 3D (2013) *****
Well, I totally bought into the film.
Whereas Redford and Farrow only convinced me that their acting range was actually quite limited, DiCaprio gave a very nuanced role that brought out both Gatsby's mystique and his hidden lower class origins. Mulligan's Daisy was funny, blissfully unaware of the damage she did in others lives.
In previous versions, the character of Nick has been nondescript at best. Here I found Toby McGuire's character interesting in his own right.
In Moulin Rouge, some of the magic of the film were the panoramas of Paris and the famous windmill. Here, the early part of the film gradually clarifies images from 1920s New York into the modern film. The party becomes one of the memorable moments in the film, showing outlandish expense lavishly spent on Gatsby's attempt to seduce Daisy and her husband to come across from the bay and join him on his Long Island estate.
Gatsby's pink suit from the book is beautifully rendered in a subtle pink/mauve tone with sets off DiCaprio's blonde hair.
I worried that I would hate the music since it sounds very modern. Actually it was felt to have reinterpreted the 1920s jazz sound and never felt discordantly modern.
The Great Gatsby 3D (2013) *****
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