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The Great Gatsby (2013)

Director:
Baz Luhrmann
COUNTRY
Australia
GENRE
Drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
The Great Gatsby
RUNNING TIME
142 minutes
Producer:
Baz Luhrmann
Douglas Wick
Lucy Fisher
Catherine Martin
Catherine Knapman
Screenwriter (based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald):
Baz Luhrmann
Craig Pearce


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Jay Gatsby Leonardo DiCaprio
Nick Carraway Tobey Maguire
Daisy Buchanan Carey Mulligan ½
Tom Buchanan Joel Edgerton ½
Jordan Baker Elizabeth Debicki
Myrtle Wilson Isla Fisher
George Wilson George Wilson
Dr. Walter Perkins Jack Thompson

 

Review

Gatsy, Gatsby, Gatsby, old sport, old sport. Oh, what wonderful images and colours accompanied by such a long-winded and strangely reductive rendition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel. Director Baz Luhrmann's idea is to make the film come alive by stringing together a series of iconic scenes (much like he did so well with Romeo + Juliet in 1996), but the scenes' essence drown in an overflow of words, an influx of voiceovers, and letters raining down over the screen. I wouldn't say the film is ill-focused as much as that it never really catches the spirit of the book, other than on the surface. Yes, here are the roaring 20s and here is the contrast between rich and poor, classy and filthy, but the film lacks resonance; it's too inward-focused, self-centered and character-based, something neither a wavering Tobey Maguire or a somewhat presumptuous Leonardo DiCaprio can amend.

Copyright © 17.10.2013 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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