As you know, I was excited about seeing Great Gatsby not least for the visual feast of it all. I went to my favourite local cinema 'The Little Theatre' and as predicted it was visually lovely -so much thought had obviously been put into the interiors (gorgeous) and the costumes (divine) and the scenes were lovely, everything looked amazing: Gatsy standing on the dock looking for the green light at Daisy's house, the elaborate high tea Gatsby organises to meet Daisy again, every party thrown!
Yes they were amazing. But despite all of this, it just didn't click for me - funnily as Tobey maguires' Nick Carraway says himself "The tempo of the city had changed sharply. The buildings were higher. The parties are bigger. The morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper" which suggests a fast pace to this tale and indeed to the general way of life for our bright young things.
But the film seemed to drag - and in all the wrong places, the build up to Gatsby and Daisy meeting is drawn out obviously - but after their first scene meeting for tea, they seem to throw in one montage of them having fun and a party and then all of a sudden its time to tell Daisy's husband Tom that she's leaving him. I don't feel there is nearly enough time of Gatsby and Daisy actually being together - I suppose that's the fast pace they are trying to capture, but I think it could have been done better.
The same goes for Tom Buchanan and his mistress Myrtle Fisher - another important relationship - there is just one short scene with them together.
Finally Nick Caraway's last meeting Daisy and Tom again after the dramatic climax following the day in the city (I wont spoil it in case you don't know the story) absent from this version, which was such a shame.
I feel like such a large amount of time is spent on the gorgeous shots of the parties and the houses, that the most important part of the story -the interaction of the characters is cut short, as if to speed things along after spending too much time on party scenes.
I actually heard someone say as we left the theatre -"well it was better than the Robert Redford Version". I disagree: Redfords' Gatsby was infinitely cooler, and Mia Farrows' Daisy was much more 'unbalanced' which I personally felt was a better interpretation that DiCaprio's manic Gatsby and Mulligans detached Daisy.
But, I know I've put it down a bit here - It is still quite a sight to behold. So I would still suggest seeing it on the big screen while you have the chance!
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| 1974 version |
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| 1974 version |
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| 2013 version |
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| 2013 |
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| 2013 |
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| 2013 |
XXX
