Robbie said Hit Play on The Great Gatsby before. Now Leah is here to say you should Hit Stop
There were great expectations with this film. It had big lead names (mainly Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire) and based on the book of the same name by F.Scott Fitzgerald; a book considered to be one of the greatest pieces of American literature.
The film, however, did not live up to these expectations.
DiCaprio’s performance was a major let down. With his acting history (the likes of the most famous Titanic, Inception and Shutter Island) you would anticipate a class A performance. However, after about the fifth time of his character, Jay Gatsby, uttering “Old Sport” it begins to grind on you greatly; after the twentieth time you just want to throw his character through a window and be done with it. His character is portrayed to be the good guy, lovable after you learn his back story, how he climbed his way from the bottom to the top, highly motivational. Until you realise how utterly obsessed he is with a girl he last met four years ago. He builds himself up money wise so he was rich enough for her then bought a house directly across from her, throwing massive parties in the hopes that one day she would wonder in. There is not really anything romantic about it, in fact it’s all rather creepy. Imagine if one of your old flames moved in opposite your house five years after you last saw him?
The best portrayal in this film is Carey Mulligan (An Education, Shame) as Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s love interest. She looks completely comfortable in her role and suits the fancy clothes and the expensive lifestyle. Her role as Daisy is the most believable of the whole cast, yet we just don’t see enough or her to make too much of a judgement.
Rating the film based just on production design and costume design alone, you can see why it won two BAFTA’s at the weekend. However Baz Luhrmann does a great job of making the whole thing look utterly superficial. Literary lovers will be extremely angered and disappointed by this depiction of The Great Gatsby.