Times have changed. Everything from technology to music has transformed and advanced tremendously. While some of these transformations or changes haven’t been positive, they certainly have affected society.
A director that seems to be unaware about these changes, yet more attentive to audience reaction is Baz Lurhmann. With his latest film, “The Great Gatsby”, he takes a risky approach in order to meet expectations of both modern movie-goers and fans of the novel. However, this direction comes across as a dreadful mistake when he decides to choose a generally disgraced method of filmmaking: style over substance.
The implications have always been severe for this technique of making movies. It’s shockingly popular in Hollywood; almost every year there’s at least one film that falls into this category. Over the years, it has become a repeating trend, something that filmmakers do solely for money.
Disappointing and surprisingly below expectations, “The Great Gatsby” is the prime example of a movie that suffers from focusing too much on style, while paying no attention to the story itself. The fifth film adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel; this movie features glamorous visuals as well as a fine performance from one of it’s leading stars, but in the end both of these factors are not enough to make up for dreadful execution. The director, Baz Luhrmann, has an overbearingly glossy vision where colors and visual effects collide while little or no attention is given to delivering a promising story. As a result, the film is like a beautiful person that ultimately has a dull personality.
The story itself is simple and even interesting at first sight: it follows a war veteran who finds himself drawn into the intriguing world of a mysterious billionaire. However, as an outcome of the director’s weak guidance and preposterous choices, “The Great Gatsby” comes across as a failed attempt on nearly every level.
It’s a tedious, and arguably bland motion picture that’s about as memorable as your everyday T.V. advertisement. One of the film’s weakest points is it’s screenplay. With the exception of Gatsby himself, the script is filled with characters that are too artificial to be taken seriously because of their under-developed personalities. These are the sort of people that would appear in a fantastical world, which the movie offers, but when emotion starts to develop in the final moments of the film it’s hard to care or even root for any of the characters. For a movie that is so emotionally devoid in it’s first hour, “The Great Gatsby” completely shifts gears during the second half when it becomes emotional. However, this turns out to be too much of a leap because none of the characters are fully developed during the first hour of the movie, making it tough to care for them near the end.
The soundtrack stands out for all the wrong reasons. Although some songs are quite fitting, the infusion of modern music in this 1920’s period piece seems like a crazy idea. When the movie is set in a time period where some other kind of music is relevant, why use latest music? Tarantino did it expertly in last year’s “Django Unchained”, but that doesn’t mean that the idea would work for just any film. Baz Luhrmann, the director, apparently thinks it does and gives an attempt that comes across as utterly ridiculous and unnecessary. In order to please today’s generation of movie-goers, artists such as Jay-Z and Beyonce are prominent in the film’s soundtrack. Yet the hip-hop/rap songs feel out of place and bizarre when combined with the movie’s ‘period-piece’ setting.
The film is loaded with many promising stars, but only one really leaves an impression. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the only saving graces of “The Great Gatsby”, and although his performance doesn’t completely redeem the film, he is well fit into the role of Gatsby. The actor is nuanced and very seasoned; he always turns in great performances even in the most disposable movies such as “J. Edgar”. In spite of this film’s poor quality, DiCaprio is charismatic. He has just enough experience and magnetic screen presence to do justice to this type of role.
The rest of the cast is passable but could have been better if not for the faults of the script. Tobey Maguire is notably miscast in the leading role, something which he cannot pull of in this particular film. Although the actor fits his role, his innocence and childishness are characteristics that are more suitable for movies such as “The Spider-Man” trilogy, which he is best known for.
As a whole, “The Great Gatsby” is one of the worst movies of the year. It chooses to glorify visuals, which results in a rather shallow script. After a while the overused narration, unnecessary pop-ups of words, and pointless scenes start to represent confusion among the crew of this film. At an absurdly long running time of nearly 2 and a half hours, there’s no doubt that one will be anxious for this “Gatsby” to end.
2/5 stars
.jpg)
The Film Buff 