Will Gatsby (Leonardo Di Caprio) and Daisy (Carey Mulligan) find true love in The Great Gatsby?
Baz Luhrmann’s ambitious take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic is easy on the eyes and resonates strongly with the lovelorn.
The Great Gatsby, which kicked off the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week, is not just any movie.
Filmmakers have been trying to get it right for the last 90 years – there were movies made in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000 – and thus I count Baz Luhrmann as the fifth director attempting to find that Midas touch (the Morgan and Maecenas touch would do, too).
What has made Gatsby so endlessly fascinating to so many generations of readers? Was it Fitzgerald’s bold, insightful commentary of the 1920s American nouveau riche (his own opulent lifestyle as a New York celebrity afforded him a bird’s-eye view, after all)?
Was it the wild and vibrant Jazz Age that gave the novel such a splendid backdrop and made it so wondrously captivating? Or was it the heart-rending story of unrequited love at the heart of the book that made everyone empathise with it?
The novel – slim though it be – is packed with imagery and metaphor (I am racing through an RM8.50 copy I picked up at Borders for a quick recap, and I see lines like “inside, the crimson red room bloomed with light” and can just imagine how Luhrmann’s eyes must have lit up at the prospect of bringing such words to life).
There is no doubt that Luhrmann has crafted a beautiful film. One expects no less of him. The colours are rich, the costumery gorgeous (with Brooks Brothers and Prada on the payroll we would expect nothing less), special effects dazzling (and in 3D to boot), the music is heady, and the actors beautiful.
In fact, the whole gin gang – comprising Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton (Daisy and Tom Buchanan), Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke (Myrtle and George Wilson), Elizabeth Debicki (Jordan Baker), and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan (Meyer Wolfshiem) – is so deliciously good-looking.
See Star2 on Saturday for the full review in print.
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