The Great Gatsby (2013) Movie Review

THE GREAT GATSBY (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

With a stellar line up of actors and a story that is based off one of the most popular novels in history, how can it go wrong? Well it doesn't with The Great Gatsby.

Now the basic premise of this movie revolves a Midwestern war veteran named Nick Carraway (Tobey Mcguire) whom finds himself moving in next door to the richest man that his town has ever seen, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a mysterious millionaire which no one knows even a whisper of facts, except these are mainly rumours of his extraordinary life he has apparently lived. Because he hears massive parties at least one day a week, Nick finds himself drawn towards Gatsby and eventually becomes involved in a millionaires life filled with parties, pain and more parties. Without going into crucial details, that is the main premise of the movie. Because I have not read the novel myself, I cannot judge on how accurate it is when compared to the novel. However overall, I found myself more intrigued in the story of Jay and Nick as the film kept on going. To sum up, the story was tremendously executed and was easily one of, if not, the movies greatest positive. 

Seeing as this is a Baz Luhrmann film, the director of such movies as Romeo + Juliet and Australia, you know that there are two aspects that you know are going to stand out. The first one being that the film will have a significant twist on the original source material. Showing that he can pull it off by swapping swords for guns in Romeo + Juliet, he has shown he can do it again by adding hip hop and rap music in a 1900's setting. Even though it sounds like it cannot fit in a day and age like that, it somehow fits seamlessly with every scene that it appears in. As for the 3-D effects, I actually felt they were a hit and miss for me. While in certain scenes like a car chase or a party it works, other times where two characters are simply having a long and drawn out conversation, it is very unnecessary.

As for the acting, I felt it was one of the greatest aspects of the film. Tobey Mcguire did a fantastic job as the man who gets sucked in the spotlight of booze and drugs. Joel Edgerton also did just as, if not a better job, than Tobey as the emotional and ruthless love interest of Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan). Now since it is one of the main reasons I was excited for this movie, I must give my thoughts on DiCaprio's portrayal of the two-faced gentleman Jay Gatsby. To sum up, it was no short of amazing. In many scenes, women and men alike wish they could have him, in some scenes he was at his boiling point causing many audience members to watch and see where it escalates to. Overall, the acting was superb all around and was just..great. 

Now earlier I mentioned that Baz Luhrmann flicks have two aspects to them. The first one was mentioned, however, I failed to mention the second one. That is that people will either love or hate them. As for me, I absolutely adored this film. As a fan of Baz, I have to say that The Great Gatsby is perhaps one of his greatest films to date and really caught me off guard. This is because it is my favourite movie of the year so far.

RATING: 8.3/10