Divine decadence, darling.
The Great Gatsby features all of Baz Luhrmann’s excesses. Lurid artificiality, modern music in an older setting, tonal whiplash, blazing literalism, it’s all here. It can be argued that the eventual emptiness at the film’s core actually suits the central narrative, but it doesn’t stop the film from frequently being not good.
Oh, it definitely has its moments. As equally as it’s stiff work for the film to get anywhere, the climax works solidly. The big party scenes manage to both be alluring and yet look like they wouldn’t actually be any fun. Most of the actors are terrific, though some (Jack Thompson, Steve Bisley, Isla Fisher) were unrecognisable. I even enjoyed some of the contemporary music choices, though some were also unbearably on the nose.
Now, I can’t say I knew the plot of the film well before seeing it; I’ve a copy of the book handy, but chose not to read it before seeing the movie. A lot of the text appears onscreen, I gather – some literally, because Luhrmann decided to actually put words on the screen, which really just emphasised how much he was Adapting Important Literature, rather than actually working for the film. I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, though I think he says ‘Old Sport’ upwards of fifty times in the film, and Carey Mulligan as Daisy, even though she occasionally veered a little close to a Marilyn Monroe impersonation. Elizabeth Debicki is like the essence of loucheness as Jordan, and she’s terrific, if underused – most everyone except the key four characters gets very little to do. It was occasionally odd to see a roomful of Australian actors all doing American accents, especially because it feels like the sound is just a little bit off, like everything has been redubbed in later, which makes everything sound even more painfully artificial. This impacted Joel Edgerton’s performance the most, because while when thinking about it I can’t say he was bad, I spent the entire film thinking he was wrong – wrong for the role, sounding a little less than real.
This is where The Great Gatsby fails the most, I felt. The artificial nature Baz Luhrmann was going for sometimes looked good, but rarely did the story any favours. Instead of making things more epic or more universal, they made them less important and less interesting. Any points about race or the underclass that the odd lingering shot of a man with a trumpet or a car-full of African-Americans with a white driver was meant to evoke was muted by the shallow nature of the film.
The film was a curate’s egg, parts of it off, parts really quite good. It’s very Baz Luhrmann, and I think the off parts outweigh the good, but that’s a personal call. I wouldn’t recommend the 3D, even though it’s pretty good for 3D, because it increases the sense of spectacle at the expense of enjoyment.
Macguffin & McGuffin 