Featured Audience Ratings

• Alexander D

  
  "The Good Gatsby". Chapter 1... Full review coming to themoviefreakblog.com on 5/29.

• Alice S

  
  The Mediocre Gatsby. I'm not a fan of the book anyway. The symbolism is heavy-handed and vaguely nonsensical: the green light, the blue car, the optometrist ad watching over the Valley of Ashes. We get it...but we don't. The awkward love plot is also full of… More
  The Mediocre Gatsby. I'm not a fan of the book anyway. The symbolism is heavy-handed and vaguely nonsensical: the green light, the blue car, the optometrist ad watching over the Valley of Ashes. We get it...but we don't. The awkward love plot is also full of "Really?" moments: Jay Gatsby moves to West Egg and hosts lavish parties that all of Manhattan's upper crust attend, yet Daisy, a veritable partygirl, never hears of him? Really? The self-made millionaire goes through several needless channels of matchmaking (Jordan and Nick) just to arrange a meeting with Daisy? Really? As friend, Molly Brost, notes, "For a book with adultery, murder, and lavish parties, the story is quite boring. I can't even remember who dies at the end." Fitzgerald fans may be satisfied though. Style auteur Baz Luhrmann's glitzy rendition does stick incredibly true to the book in terms of story and theme: the love plot is awkward, and the symbolism is heavy-handed. Barring some odd, hopefully out-of-context comments about how Lurhrmann wishes the movie will spark several Gatsby-themed parties this summer, the movie is visually sumptuous (if a bit Moulin-Rouge-formulaic) but also effectively condemns our obsession with wealth and the American Dream. The parties are indeed lavish, the anachronistic soundtrack is intriguing, the frame story of Nick in a sanitarium is unnecessary but pays kind tribute to FSF's prose, which we rarely see in film adaptations of literary classics. I don't like the faces or voices or acting styles of Leonardo DiCaprio nor Tobey Maguire, so Carey Mulligan's sleek bob, narrow shoulders, and high breathy voice claimed most of my attention. However, more could have been done to show Daisy's vapidity and shallowness but also her fear of monetary instability.

• c0up  

  
  'The Great Gatsby'. The production and costume design rock! Mulligan and DiCaprio are darn good. Luhrmann's direction and the soundtrack are both overbearing and forced at times.

• Kyle F

  
  It feels a lot like a soap opera at times, and at others the style can be a bit overly aggressive, but Gatsby is an entertaining ride featuring multiple fine performances, especially from Maguire.

• William D

  
  Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" has flaws. For starters, it's visually and sonically bloated and about a half-hour too long (total running time is almost two-and-a-half hours). But it is also magical, complex, intelligent, and a true work of art -- one of the… More
  Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" has flaws. For starters, it's visually and sonically bloated and about a half-hour too long (total running time is almost two-and-a-half hours). But it is also magical, complex, intelligent, and a true work of art -- one of the best films of 2013 thus far, probably the best so far. The film has triggered in me a great desire to finally read the novel (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925). This is not just a story about characters; it's a layered, poetic meditation on the meaning and quality of modern life. When the book was first published, if must have felt like an embodiment of the young 20th century. Young writer, young era, young characters. (Fitzgerald was in his 20's when he wrote it.) What I love about this adaptation is that Luhrmann has found a way to make it speak in the same way to the young 21st century. By incorporating Jay Z and other contemporary music and giving the film a highly current feel, Luhrmann has given the tragic story of Gatsby and Daisy the opportunity to speak to us as it did to our grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations. All of us moderns. We may be later-modern, but there's something about the reckless frenzy of the 1920s that feels recognizable, like we're in the later phases of an epoch that began in Fitzgerald's time. Yes, the soundtrack is often too loud and overpowering, but that musical intensity is essential to Luhrmann's artistic aim here. I think sometimes the music is meant to be a bit grating for middle-aged viewers, as jazz and Gershwin were to middle-aged ears in the 1920s. One of the most distinctive aspects of the modern era is the explosion of pop music, which young people always yearn to play at high volumes. Luhrmann has a masterful eye for noticing similarities like this across the different decades of the modern era. He connects the dots across time periods in ways that no other filmmaker can. ************************************** For those who don't know the novel, the basic parameters of the story are as follows. The narrator is Nick Carraway (here played adequately by Tobey Maguire), an upper-middle-class Midwestern boy just out of college who moves to New York a few years after the war (WWI) and gets a job on Wall Street. He rents a small house right next to a gaudy mansion owned by a mysterious Oz-like bachelor named Gatsby (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Directly across the bay from them is a palatial estate owned by a young couple, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who both come from old money. Nick quickly realizes that Daisy and Gatsby have a romantic history. The central drama that emerges concerns whether Daisy (played well by Carey Mulligan) is going to leave her unfaithful husband, whom she doesn't really love, break the taboos of her class, and marry the up-from-the-gutter Gatsby. As you can see, class hierarchy is a central theme. These days, this theme tends to cause eye-rolling because in the the past 100 years class stratification has decreased, making American society less caste-like. Self-made men and women travel among old money with greater ease today than ever before. But just because class lines are somewhat permeable today doesn't mean they don't exist. Every American today has had some experience with class stratification. Anyone who denies that is lying -- to himself. Luhrmann succeeds in depicting the power of social hierarchy as it must have felt for people like Gatsby and Daisy. Luhrmann also triumphs in depicting the power of their love. I don't believe I will ever forget the intensity of the sequence where Gatsby and Daisy see each other for the first time since their break-up five years earlier. DiCaprio and Mulligan capture the terror and bliss of this moment magnificently, especially DiCaprio. Rarely have I seen a male actor depict romantic turmoil so well. Gatsby quite literally comes apart in this sequence. Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom thus form a romantic triangle. But the two men are actually involved in another such intimate entanglement. Gatsby and Tom are both having an affair with a lower-class woman from Queens (played beautifully by Isla Fisher). "Affair" might be too strong a word. She's not much more than a prostitute to the men. But because of Fisher's resonant performance, this character takes on real depth of feeling. Yes, she's a floozy, but what's underneath the manic partying is a desperate yearning to escape the gutter to which she knows she and her husband are doomed. Even her husband takes on emotional weight in the story. Played superbly by Jason Clarke, this character's black hole of a life becomes part and parcel of what Luhrmann and Fitzgerald are trying to explore. Even though the character doesn't have much screen time, he has a major scene in the end that is memorable. His rage, furthermore, leads to the story's violent crescendo and the death of a major character. (I won't tell you who.) In several ways, this character serves as a turning-point in the story. Sometimes one feels during the film that there are too many characters. But that very multiplicity is also a strength. Every nook and cranny of the film is teeming with life, each character with a unique vantage point through which one may contemplate America. ******************************************* There are about 25 other things I'd like to say about this film, but I can't go on forever. I'll end with this: Luhrmann four or five times draws attention to the fact that his source material is a beloved novel. Several of the book's most elegiac, unique and profound sentences appear on the screen -- the actual words appear, as Maguire reads them in voice-over narration. They appear for a moment and then float away, as if Luhrmann were blowing them out like a candle. I found these moments sublime. A filmmaker as much in love with books as movies. Almost all true artists are passionate about several art forms, not just their own, but rarely do they share this with us. Luhrmann of course is interested in the book because of its extraordinary contents. But a part of his appreciation lies in the form in which that artistry is delivered. Its book-ness, if you will. The look of the words on the page, the feel of the paper in your hand, the smell of it. (Have you ever flipped through a book, looking at all the words, and felt a surge of ecstasy, just over its glorious book-ness?) Because this words-on-the-screen technique is used mostly at the end of the film, one walks out of the theater with it fresh in the mind. I walked out picturing Luhrmann as a young man reading "Gatsby" for the first time. There he is, college student with a difficult novel in his hands, drinking in its best sentences, overwhelmed at the moments when, in one sentence, the 25-year-old Fitzgerald simultaneously captures the warm, gushing power of love and the cold, merciless power of death. It's moments like these, when reading a great novel, that turn a boy into an artist. All these decades later, the middle-aged Luhrmann still remembers those sentences, what they meant to him and how they changed his life. That's a small part of his landmark adaptation of this novel that everyone said would be un-adaptable. I'm fairly confident that a good number of boys who see this film will feel themselves turning into artists as a result. Thank you, Baz Luhrmann, for passing it on to the next generation.

• Liam G

  
  There are shades of greatness in the last 30 minutes, but Luhrmann's take on ''The Great Gatsby'' is so bombastic and hyper that it leaves you cold.

• Bathsheba M

  
  This is the best of the movie versions of The Great Gatsby. But even taken on its own terms, without comparison to others, it's a standout. The spectacle of Gatsby's parties was wonderful and wonderfully decadent. The frame structure--Nick Carraway in a sanatorium after… More
  This is the best of the movie versions of The Great Gatsby. But even taken on its own terms, without comparison to others, it's a standout. The spectacle of Gatsby's parties was wonderful and wonderfully decadent. The frame structure--Nick Carraway in a sanatorium after too much debauching and realizing a lot of people are schmucks--worked surprisingly well--and allowed Buz Luhrmann to pay homage to the original novel. Joel Edgerton made Tom Buchanan come alive in a way he never has for me even in the book. Leonardo DiCaprio is just one of the best actors around and his Gatsby rang true--the sturdy mid-western boy good looks and oddly pure obsession (although you could argue the pure part with me and you might win). Carey Mulligan looked like an angel and was indeed the "beautiful little fool" she wished on her daughter. I particularly liked the swooshing camera trick bringing us from one place to the next--I think I remember this trick from Moulin Rouge, but it worked better here because Gatsby was indeed living in two places at once: where his body happened to be and where he imagined Daisy to be. It was beautiful to look at and I didn't see it in 3d--those glasses give me a headache--but it was plenty spectacular without them.

• Sanjay R

  
  This film, while visually entertaining, greatly abbreviates and rushes many parts of the Gatsby story. The Jordan character is greatly minimized, Myrtle's storyline is shortened and even the Nick character is forgotten about towards the end. I really liked the director's… More
  This film, while visually entertaining, greatly abbreviates and rushes many parts of the Gatsby story. The Jordan character is greatly minimized, Myrtle's storyline is shortened and even the Nick character is forgotten about towards the end. I really liked the director's vision and ideas, but this film left me feeling unsatisfied.

• E.J. B

  
  Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby is gorgeous to look at and is quite possibly the most unique film adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel to date. Having said that, it probably will have more of an appeal to those who haven't read the book. It runs about twenty minutes… More
  Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby is gorgeous to look at and is quite possibly the most unique film adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel to date. Having said that, it probably will have more of an appeal to those who haven't read the book. It runs about twenty minutes too long and is never quite as enthralling as Fitzgerald's prose. The cast is amazing, but some of the novel's most memorable moments - particularly the TJ Eckleburg billboard, the hit and run, as well as the flashing green light - have lost much of their poetic significance in translation to the screen. All in all, I'm not sure if I can recommend this film as a good adaptation of the book - and because The Great Gatsby is my all time favourite book, I'm exceptionally critical of this film - but I can certainly recommend it as an honest and faithful tribute, one that is certainly a visual feast if nothing else.

• Nate Z

  
  It seemed like some sort of educational mandate that every child in the United States was forced to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, when they were in high school. In my highly unscientific number crunching, it appears that those who actually enjoyed the book… More
  It seemed like some sort of educational mandate that every child in the United States was forced to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, when they were in high school. In my highly unscientific number crunching, it appears that those who actually enjoyed the book are in the minority. I recall lathing it, but then again, when you're fifteen, you sort of loath everything. Enter Australian director Baz Luhrmann, the showman who exploded the screen in razzle-dazzle run amok with Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge!. Not exactly the kind of filmmaker one would fathom helming an adaptation of a classic of American literature, but the man's style of excess seems like a suitable match for Fitzgerald's tale of high-class overindulgence. In 1922, young Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) moves to the hustle and bustle of New York City, living close to his cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her rich husband Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). He's also the neighbor to the mysterious and newly rich Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a reclusive man who opens his mansion up to prolific bacchanals. Rumors persist in who he is and how he accrued his enormous fortune. He's an old flame of Daisy's and is secretly hoping she'll attend one of his raucous soirees. He enlists Nick to help arrange a reunion for them, and soon enough Gatsby is already planning their happy future together again. Trouble is, Tom isn't willing to lose his wife without a fight. Luhrmann's helming of The Great Gatsby gave me exactly what I desired and expected. The movie is convulsing with energy and the first hours just moves; be it the camerawork or people onscreen, for long stretches there always seems to be some degree of onscreen movement. Luhrmann's signature theatrical visual atmosphere is vibrant, joyous, and a perfect translator of the lavish lifestyles of the noveau rich in the Roaring '20s. The man brings to startling life the sensations of being young, privileged, and carefree, and the use of anachronistic music, while not nearly as textured and thematically relevant as Moulin Rouge!, adds to the fun. I quite enjoyed a low-key, jazzy rendition of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love." Luhrmann's style treks in excess but it's a much more pleasant, dreamy, and altogether beguiling form of artistic indulgence than, say, Michael Bay or Tony Scott and their respective macho visual fetishes. Luhrmann's campy sense of style doesn't come across as overly suffocating or distracting, at least to my eyes, and instead the man injects his movies with tremendous energy, immersing you into a new world of old and modern. This is what Luhrmann was meant for. While other canonical classics of American literature may not survive a glitzy Lurhmann treatment, but it's a goof match for the extravagant excess of Fitzgerald's setting. Lurhmann's visuals are glorious, and the 1920s era is brought to glamorous life. You get the sense it was one giant party without any lasting consequences (if you were rich enough). The second half of the movie slows down considerably after the amped-up introduction. We're caught up in the characters at this point, as we should be, and the Gatsby/Daisy reunion dominates the plot. I suppose there are only so many Bubsy Berkley numbers and confetti explosions one can encounter before the plot has to set in. Lurhmann and company stick pretty faithfully to Fitzgerald's plot (rest easy, lazy high school students of today and tomorrow). Interestingly, they are far more explicit about Gatsby's securities fraud, knowingly making a fortune off junk bonds, all in the name to impress Daisy. There's a genuine sense of respect for the source material even with Luhrmann's visual flourishes; at several points, Fitzgerald's text floats onscreen. The problem is that Luhrmann's Gatsby is almost entirely focused on the romantic coupling of its title figure and Daisy. Gone is the class criticism, the indictment of the follies of the rich, the examination of the dark side of the American Dream, and the subtext. You'll get plenty of shots of that famous green light, 20th century literature's most famous and unsophisticated symbol (pay attention kids: green means go), but there's little time for complexity. It's not a screen romance worth this much attention, which is kind of the point, but when the movie clocks at over 2 hours and 20 minutes, drawing out a lackluster romance can become rather grating. If I were top cite one major fault in Luhrmann's incarnation, it's that it adopts Nick's fawning perspective and treats Gatsby as this tragic romantic figure. I acknowledge with every adaption there is a degree of interpretation, and romantic hero is certainly one facet of Gatsby, certainly how he sees himself, but by the end of Fitzgerald's novel, Gatsby is really more a naïve man who really only sees Daisy as trophy, a prize for his reinvention and jumping up to the storied moneyed class. Daisy herself is certainly weak-willed but her emptiness (she says there's nothing better than for a girl to be a "beautiful, young fool") is part of the appeal to Gatsby because he can remake her however he wants. He's not interested insomuch as her as a person. I don't think that the Gatsby/Daisy escapades fall into the ranks of Great Tragic Couples of Literature, but that's how Luhrmann interprets the novel, transforming Gatsby into a revered, honorable, and heartbreaking romantic we're meant to shed a tear for. I suppose since we're reliving the story through Nick's perspective that events could be colored differently. Beyond just a simplistic analysis, it also misses the greater and more futile tragedy of a man trying to escape his past by obsessively recreating it. The acting is fairly good all around, though the standout is certainly not whom you'd expect. DiCaprio (Django Unchained) is a good fit for the handsome social-climber, but the movie only asks him to play a limited range of emotions, rarely breaking free to show glimpses of the darker, less polished side of Gatsby's carefully crafted image. He doesn't exactly exude the charisma you would think necessary for the man, plus his use of "old sport" is so overly abundant it approaches farce. Maguire (Brothers) is a bit too earnest even for his role. It becomes readily clear within minutes that Maguire does not possess a voice for narration. The man is also a bit too old, at 37, to play the naïve, stars-in-his-eyes Nick Carraway. Mulligan (Shame) is given the least to work with since Daisy is meant to be rather opaque but she brings an extra amount of sympathy for a character trapped by her indecision and the demands of men. Easily the best actor in the bunch is Edgerton (Warrior). It would be easy for the guy to simply be the brutish heavy, the angry husband and easy to hate antagonist. Edgerton showcases a surprising depth, and you may find yourself feeling some smidge of sympathy for the lout. Much like Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, it's an easy prediction that his Great Gatsby will be equally divisive. There will probably be as many critics decrying Luhrmann's blitzkrieg of confetti and style as a campy cannibalization of an American classic as there will be celebrating the mad energy and obsequious reverence exhibited in a handsomely mounted, big-budget adaptation. The movie is even being presented in 3D, and did you ever think you'd hear the phrase "The Great Gatsby in 3D" in your life? I enjoyed Luhrmann's gaudiness and indulgences, painting the screen with his vivid imagination. The impressive production design, costumes, visual effects, and overall visual aesthetic of the movie are a feast for the eyes. Now there are plenty of indulgences and excesses in the movie, particularly the emphasis on grand romance, but Gatsby entertains with few lags. Having read the book once and disliked it heartily in my youth, I can readily say that here is an example of where the movie is better than the book. Now if someone could go about making an improved version of The Lord of the Flies and A Tale of Two Cities, whatever you have to do, my teenage self will thank you kindly. Nate's Grade: B

• Nikhil N

  
  Although the movie starts off badly, overrun by Luhrmann's overbearing style, it redeems itself with a more than exceptional performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. The middle and end parts of the film are also redemptive, relying more on plot than on Luhrmann's direction. This… More
  Although the movie starts off badly, overrun by Luhrmann's overbearing style, it redeems itself with a more than exceptional performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. The middle and end parts of the film are also redemptive, relying more on plot than on Luhrmann's direction. This is by far the best Gatsby adaptation to date. It is a very entertaining, intense film which unfortunately is a byproduct of its sacrificing many of the themes which made the book great. At times the themes of the book are stressed on too heavily at the expense of the film's quality. At other times the themes are glossed over by Luhrmann's highly stylized direction. Regardless of its thematic inconsistency, The Great Gatsby excels where it counts. The film captures the tension and drama of the book fantastically and coupled with Leonardo DiCaprio in a role he was born to play, ends up being well worth it. Its hard not love The Great Gatsby. It has so much heart and passion because of its wonderful source material. Even the at times obnoxious direction cannot spoil this adaptation of one of the greatest American novels of all time. This movie is by no means as good as the book. It is mostly hit and miss in that regard. But as far as adaptations of books go, I have learned to treat movies as a separate entities because otherwise I would always be disappointed. So as a stand-alone movie it succeeds on multiple levels and I highly recommend it.

• Mark H

  
  The Great Gatsby seems destined to remain one of those unadaptable books. The beauty of Fitzgerald's prose never seems to translate properly to the silver screen. Filmmakers have tried. This is the fifth adaptation of the classic work of American fiction. Published in 1925, The… More
  The Great Gatsby seems destined to remain one of those unadaptable books. The beauty of Fitzgerald's prose never seems to translate properly to the silver screen. Filmmakers have tried. This is the fifth adaptation of the classic work of American fiction. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is considered by many to be The Great American Novel. It details the acquisition of the American dream and the hollow facade behind those that have acquired it. Fitzgerald beautifully captured a cross-section of American society. He delights in capturing a time and place, namely the Jazz Age of the 1920s in Long Island, New York. Director Luhrmann certainly captures the look of an era. The art direction is beyond compare. The costumes are extraordinary. It's without a doubt a technical marvel of resplendent opulence. But the attention to superficial details comes at an expense. The spectacle IS the story. The amplified style lacks any meaningful insight that would make these people interesting. It isn't until a heated confrontation between Gatsby and Tom in a hotel that we form any connection to them as well as Nick, Daisy and Jordan - the rest of the primary cast. Sadly it's near the end of the film. The production seems more concerned with minutiae like the large curl in Jordan's black hair, than in what she is saying. "I just heard the most shocking thing. It all makes sense!" the golf pro coos early on at a party before disappearing without explanation. We're supposed to care what she's talking about. Strangely we don't. fastfilmreviews.wordpress.com

• Chris M

  
  I'm surprised. Based off the reviews I've read I wasn't expecting much going in. But you know what, I liked it. It was an enjoyable adaptation that was boosted by a great performance by DiCaprio as Gatsby. The visuals were great despite at times being "yeah… More
  I'm surprised. Based off the reviews I've read I wasn't expecting much going in. But you know what, I liked it. It was an enjoyable adaptation that was boosted by a great performance by DiCaprio as Gatsby. The visuals were great despite at times being "yeah that's obviously green screen" (Movies like Gangster Squad and Dark Shadows had this same situation). It bursts with style and Baz Luhrmann-campiness. It has a flashy charm that jumps off the screen. One thing that felt strange was the Jay Z/Kanye West music used in the first 40 minutes or so. I understand that Jay Z was a producer of the film, but it kind of takes you out of the movie a bit. The scenes with Jay Z songs in them were directed well to the music but they just don't go with the time period (obviously). Overall- It's not the most memorable of all the movies I've seen so far this year, but it's not the worst. Also, yes, it's the best Great Gatsby movie thus far. One day in the future they'll probably make another and really nail it (not that this one didn't do a good job or anything). Letter Grade: B

• Gregory D

  
  Gatsby was both stylized and colorful; however they could have easily edited out 30 minutes of content without affecting the film in the slightest. Dicaprio and Mulligan were great. Yet if you have a short attention span then stay away. This film has a lot of drama/banter.

• Kevin C

  
  Baz Luhrmann's Spark Notes adaptation had potential, but he found himself stuck on and obsessing over the minor "Over-Indulgence" section of Important Themes and Motifs.

• Flutie A

  
  I've never read the book, so I went in expecting some things to happen from a story-telling perspective that never happened. It looked great, but I just didn't get blown away by anything in particular. From a technical perspective, it drove me nuts that nearly every… More
  I've never read the book, so I went in expecting some things to happen from a story-telling perspective that never happened. It looked great, but I just didn't get blown away by anything in particular. From a technical perspective, it drove me nuts that nearly every cutaway shot had unsynched audio that didn't match the motions of the character speaking.. Must have been a fun one for the editor!

• KJ P

  
  With a terrific script and a well-told story, Baz Luhrmann's version of "The Great Gatsby" is questionable to be called a good film, and I hesitate on that myself, but I enjoyed the film for what it is. It is extremely overshadowed by the style surrounding the film, but… More
  With a terrific script and a well-told story, Baz Luhrmann's version of "The Great Gatsby" is questionable to be called a good film, and I hesitate on that myself, but I enjoyed the film for what it is. It is extremely overshadowed by the style surrounding the film, but if you try to ignore that, the direction is very good and the script is very well-written. You can clearly see that they tried staying true to the source, and having the main character scribe the Gatsby story throughout the film was a very interesting thing to do. The visuals are kind of annoying for the first 30 minutes, but I was able to get used to them and immerse myself with each character. The acting is terrific, the visuals are gorgeous, the story is fantastic, and the costumes are done perfectly. My few gripes with the film definitely begin with the distracting visuals (mainly the 3D conversion which is god awful) and end with the music, which I gives them props for having the balls to use today's hip-hop music with visuals taking place in the 1920's. The big screen adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" is not great, but I really enjoyed watching it.

• Matthew Samuel M

  
  It loses major points for an awkwardly and badly paced beginning, and for its surprisingly and wince-inducing, wooden acting, but the visuals, music, and thankfully the middle and end of the film make it a somewhat enjoyable ride. It is beautiful to look at, beautiful to listen to,… More
  It loses major points for an awkwardly and badly paced beginning, and for its surprisingly and wince-inducing, wooden acting, but the visuals, music, and thankfully the middle and end of the film make it a somewhat enjoyable ride. It is beautiful to look at, beautiful to listen to, and worth experiencing. But its major flaws keep it from being the masterpiece it could have been. At least we can walk away from it appreciating the brilliant aesthetics and the classic story it is based on.

• Sam B

  
  "Everything's so confused," exclaims the character Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, as well as in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of it. Yet in Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby", the words have never rang truer. His vision… More
  "Everything's so confused," exclaims the character Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, as well as in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of it. Yet in Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby", the words have never rang truer. His vision of one of the most beloved novels in American literature is indeed confused, and while a lot of that confusion actually adds to the movie, it remains confusing how a film so flamboyent, so full of great actors, and with such a storied basis, managed to be so void of emotional resonance. The things that one would expect to hurt the movie the most - the anachronist soundtrack, and the crazy, expensive production values and overplayed 3D, are the best things about this "Gatsby." If nothing else, they help transition a modern audience into the roaring 20s, to make it more relatable to a "Project X" generation than any high school teacher could. Its a beautiful, colorful movie, quite frankly, and in every shot there's plenty of detail to look at. It's actually what the film tries so hard to retain from the novel - basically all of its literary merit - that Luhrmann bungles. For example, why keep Nick Carraway's voiceover narration when adapting a novel to film, especially given the director's emphasis on visuals - being read snippets of a Tobey Maguire audiobook is antithetical to the rest of the film's eye-popping elegance.The movie also seems to grossly underestimate (I'd even go as far to say it insults) the audience's intelligence by bashing them in the head with any subtlety the novel had in its use of symbolism and motifs. I get trying to appeal to a mass audience, old sport, but even the dumbest of moviegoers are likely to understand, for example, what the green light symbolizes after the first five mentions of it. The film is in a peculiar situation, one where when it relies too little on the novel, the lack of substance and over-stylization is immediately noticeable, but whenever it tries bringing in the literary elements, it manages to make the film the exact adjective it tries so hard to avoid - boring.Lurhmann knows how to make movies that are a pleasure to look at. He knows what actors will do the trick (and this cast is pretty much perfect, even if they are just reading lines out of a book.) Yet, with "The Great Gatsby", Luhrmann comes across as the over-ambitious high school drama instructor who keeps dreaming of a bigger and bigger production, until he forgets what made the source so beloved in the first place. The trailers for this movie were awesome, and the best of what it has to offer are pretty much encapsulated in them. Its a reminder that Baz Luhrmann's style is perfectly suited to, say, a music video. Or better yet, a car commercial. But an adaptation of the Great American Novel? I'd say not, old sport. What is most disappointing, though, is that the film has glimpses of what could have been a fantastic movie, but instead we'll likely have to wait decades until another brave director decides to dive ceaselessly into the past and bring this novel the film companion it so deserves.

• Julie B

  
  It's pretty. And pretty slow in the second half.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings