“The Great Gatsby” Is Kept From True Greatness

In terms of missed opportunities, “The Great Gatsby” is near epic. It's exactly the right time for it to be released, what with the Great Recession and discussions of class resonating loud and clear. It's got a top-notch cast and a huge budget. It hasn't been adapted to film too recently. And of course, it's based on a book that is considered on of the greatest American novels ever written. But alas, a few pieces are missing from the mysterious puzzle that once completed, means greatness.

For anyone who hasn't taken any kind of literature course, the film revolves around a mysterious millionaire named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose story is told by his friend and neighbor Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire). But unlike the book, the movie actually begins years later in an asylum, where Nick narrates how he came to be Gatsby's neighbor and friend, and how he was drawn into his life.

We first meet Nick's cousin, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), and her brutish husband Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), who before long strong-arms Nick into meeting his mistress Myrtle (Isla Fisher) too. And the parties just keep on coming after Nick is invited to his neighbor's mansion for one of his legendary soirees. All of New York seems to come, yet no one seems to know Gatsby or anything about him.

But once Nick befriends him, he soon discovers that Gatsby shares a past with his cousin Daisy and has been secretly in love with her for years. When the pair finally do meet and reconnect, Baz Luhrmann's trademark, explosive pace practically comes to a screeching halt. True, he was able to elegantly portray “Romeo + Juliet,” but the romance at the center of “The Great Gatsby” isn't meant to be the grand romantic passion Luhrmann has so often portrayed and what he tries to portray once again here.

In fact, Luhrmann embraces all the elements that are supposed to show the hollowness at the core of America's Roaring Twenties and The American Dream. But once the party dies down and the romance refuses to fill the director's needs, “The Great Gatsby” suffers for it. If only Luhrmann was able to dig beneath the surface, the movie's modern soundtrack, it's ridiculously beautiful, shallow visuals, and it's music video-ready parties could all actually work. It's a credit to the cast that they actually make their characters (and through them, the film) kind of fun to watch, rather than just bores or caricatures. So for all its faults, the movie actually does get a few things right, but only in spite of itself, not because of its merits.

Grade: C-