This is a hard one for me to review.
I'll be honest, I had all of my hopes pinned on it, especially after its delayed release (from Christmas 2012, circa Django and Les Misérables) and all of the previews that featured the Jay-Z-produced soundtrack.
Here is my upfront opinion: It was better than most movies I have seen, but it just was not as good as I thought it would be. It left me with an empty feeling, but then again, so did the book. In that sense, it did a phenomenal job of capturing the essence of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work. This film was really a work of art that should be appreciated, so I'll expand on my thoughts a bit more and tell you a bit of what made this film into the pop-culture powerhouse it seems to be at the moment.
- Music: Some viewers may be skeptical about modern music being inserted into a period piece, but I found that the choices made were all great ones. The upbeat music added to the flashy nature of the roaring 1920s while the slower songs really enhanced the dramatic scenes and emotional moments of love and tension.
- Cinematography, Setting, & Effects: The film started out being flashy, with swooping aerial shots between East and West Egg (Long Island). For some it may have seemed like a roller coaster ride, but to me it seemed like a flashy Prezi presentation. Once the plot moved on, the cinematography was truly gorgeous eye-candy, colors popped and the sets seemed so perfect. It really gave the words from the work something onto which to adhere. Speaking of words though, someone made the decision to have words in the font of an old typewriter appear on the screen during various parts of the film. In some parts it was tasteful, but more often than not...it looked like something that the producers will be embarrassed by in a few years (bad PowerPoint style).
- Casting & Acting: The film featured Leonardo DiCaprio (Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), Elizabeth Debicki (Jordan Baker), Joel Edgerton (Tom Buchanan), Isla Fisher (mistress Myrtle), and many more fantastic actors. The ones listed above really portrayed their various characters in the most convincing and enchanting ways.
- Costumes: A period film is nothing without costumes, hair, and makeup. I felt that the costumes were the most constantly impressive visual element of this film. Much like the director's (Baz Luhrmann) famous work with Moulin Rouge!, the visuals truly created another world in which the audience can escape for a couple hours.
Thank you for reading!
