The Great Gatsby

The Cannes Film Festival is a hallowed event for film lovers, but also a big fat party with film stars parading up and down the red carpet in the finest and most expensive clothing and jewellery. For this reason, you couldn’t imagine a more appropriate opening film than The Great Gatsby. It is bringing Carey Mulligan, our favourite young British actress, Tobey Maguire, and Leonardo DiCaprio to Cannes. And after Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, we know that swing, bombast, and glamour are the particular forte of director Baz Luhrmann. The Australian has released every last ounce of his extravaganza on The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel that one never tires of rereading. Luhrmann has added nothing to the content, but counts on the fact that the novel retains sufficient richness in its adaption.

Mister Show-Business does leave his mark, however, on the many scenes that might question his film philosophy that breath-taking sets can never be populated by too many perfectly dressed extras, that you can never be too frivolous with cinematography, and that you should never think twice about roping in Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Lana Del Rey to emphasise the spectacle even more. Visually, The Great Gatsby looks good enough to eat. Leonardo DiCaprio is a tower of strength as the title character: a mysterious man who throws the most lavish parties with his self-made fortune, but actually has only one purpose in life: winning back Daisy, the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, Daisy is married to the rich, controlling Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).

One of the problems with this film is that the tempo slows and the drama wanes every time the witness/storyteller/voiceover Nick Carraway chimes in with Fitzgerald’s prose. The book paints a very exciting picture of the frivolity and splendour of New York during the Roaring Twenties, but also evokes the vacuity and melancholy of the nouveaux riches’ lives. The film does the craziness well, but is too bombastic and overblown, and too fixated on the melodramatic love story to reflect the emptiness and sadness.

The Great Gatsby ••
US, 2013, dir.: Baz Luhrmann, act.: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, 143 min.