Film Review: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 142 minutes. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Screenplay by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Verdict: A magnificent achievement from start to finish.

It is curious to consider that F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing his seminal work The Great Gatsby to have been a failure. Only posthumously did his novel become considered as ‘the great American novel’ – such was the impact of the cracked mirror Fitzgerald held up to those in pursuit of unimaginable wealth and glamour, which is all too conveniently referred to as ‘the American dream’.

It is not quite as curious that it should be one of Australia’s big picture dreamers who takes the novel on. Luhrmann’s preposterous ambition for this film incises the novel’s grand themes of hope, optimism and the desolation of a life-long infatuation and lays the threads that both unite and divide us bare in scene after scene of artfully considered cinematic mastery. The finely-wrought screenplay, written with his constant collaborator Pearce, is flawless – and utterly enthralling for every one of its 142 minutes.

The production and costume design from Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s creative soulmate and constant collaborator, is magnificent – recreating the 1920s with such an alarming level of dazzling, hyper-realistic creativity that it is, at times, simply overwhelming. Martin’s world for this film is both lovingly and carefully considered, and as true to the era as it is possible to imagine for people who never experienced it.

Leonardo DiCaprio, (who first worked with Luhrmann in Romeo and Juliet) delivers a beautiful performance as the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, whose obsession with winning back the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan (a perfect Carey Mulligan), leads him and everyone involved in his pyrotechnical life to the brink of emotional ruin.

Tobey Maguire is outstanding as the narrator Nick Carraway, delivering a performance of wide-eyed wonder in the face of the increasingly disconcerting influence of the obscenely privileged people that surround his innocent, uncomplicated existence. The standout performance, though, is that of Joel Edgerton, whose morally-bankrupt Tom Buchanan strides and procrastinates through the story like a raging bull from a bygone age. And as his self-righteousness suffocates everyone around him, the real sting in Fitzgerald’s tale becomes less about the perils of soul-less wealth and glamour but more about who it is in our lives who would prefer to see us absolutely fail than succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.