REVIEW: Green Light for Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann’s new film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s acclaimed classic, The Great Gatsby, is exactly what the title implies: great. Gatsby follows Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire) as he recounts the tale of his first summer on Long Island Sound. The mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby lives next-door, and hosts lavish parties almost every night in the hopes that his lost love, Daisy, who lives across the sound, might wander in one night.

Luhrmann’s directorial vision takes every single aspect of the novel and turns it into a decadent vision of the nineteen twenties, just as Fitzgerald intended. From the overly vibrant waters that separate the forlorn lovers to the synchronized movements of the hired help, Gatsby’s world is akin to a crystalline Neverland where the bottles of booze are bottomless and every curtain is made of the finest lace. The art direction perfectly highlights the materialism of the American dream, from the mysterious mist that surrounds the green light of Gatsby’s hopes and desires to the simple sheen of the yellow car the film includes as an homage to the 1974 Robert Redford version; every aspect of the film conveys the boozy haze that Carraway describes.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s fantastic portrayal of Jay Gatsby is possibly the most noteworthy aspect of the film apart from its magnificent art direction. DiCaprio’s Gatsby is both incredibly shallow and heartbreakingly idealistic in a way that endears him to the soul of every member of the audience. His likability, however, becomes deeply troubling when one realizes the materialistic vision of his dream to create a decadent world of things for Daisy to exist in. Both DiCaprio and Mulligan’s portrayal of their characters conveys the inability of Gatsby and Daisy to understand or to properly convey the feelings that they possess for one another.

Luhrmann makes interesting choices in molding the characters of Nick and Gatsby. While the film underscores the unreliability of Nick as a narrator by making the audience of his reverie a psychologist. The film also makes the shady source of Gatsby’s mysterious fortune much more prominent than it is in the novel, raising some interesting questions. If Nick has gone through a break down, how much of this story is actually believable? Is this a defense of Gatsby’s character altered by his friend, or the true story of Gatsby’s tragedy? Does the source of Gatsby’s fortune corrupt the dream world that he has created for his long lost love?

While the film creates an amazing artistic vision of the drunken debauchery of the 1920’s and the materialistic aspect of the American dream, Luhrmann draws from a more modern pool for the soundtrack. During the magnificent party scenes at Gatsby’s house, Luhrmann uses music from rap artists such as Jay Z to draw an interesting parallel between the party culture of the roaring 20’s and the party scene of today’s rap culture.

While The Great Gatsby will undoubtedly disappoint those who wanted Luhrmann to stay completely true to the text, those who were looking for a decadent, overly extravagant Gatsby with interesting changes made to highlight the broken vision of the American dream that exists today will consider the film a classic for years to come.