Rating of
2/4
The Great Gatsby
lastonetoleave - wrote on 05/11/13
The Great Gatsby (2013) PG-13 Nick (Tobey Maquire) is a New York stockbroker at the height of the Roaring Twenties. Along with his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), he gets pulled into the mesmerizing world of Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose wealth and fame for staging elaborate parties are legendary. But, all that glitters is not gold and the more Nick finds out about Gatsby, the more puzzling the millionaire becomes. Gatsby says a line that looks like the director, Baz Luhrmann, takes to heart: “You can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!” When I was watching this film, it was like I was watching Luhrmann’s early film, Moulin Rouge! without all the singing. This film feels like one long music video, which is fine for awhile, but after 143 minutes, it gets very tiring. I wish that Luhrmann would have let this fine cast act instead of being a part of a very loud, very gimmicky film that can’t figure out its overall tone. I enjoyed DiCaprio’s performance, though I did get tired of his use of the phrase, “Old Sport." I thought Tobey Mcguire was agreeable as the writer/narrator of the story, but putting hip-hop music to a 1920’s setting just didn’t work. It was as if Luhrmann wanted to make a film to accompany a modern soundtrack. In fact, I think this film would have worked so much better if it had been set in the modern world as the storyline of wealth and deception is timeless. And, by the way, it’s not necessary to see this film in 3-D, even though it is very evident that many of the shots were done for that format. My Rating: Bargain Matinee
