The Great Gatsby (2013): Review

Tonight I went and saw The Great Gatsby and I am glad to say I really enjoyed it.  Some of the things that I wasn’t sure about going ended up working.

The Great Gatsby is the movie adaptation of the 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald movie of the same name.  It follows Nick Carraway, played by Tobey Maguire, throughout the summer of 1922 as he deals with life and meeting his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  He is drawn into the twisted lives of Jay, as he strives to regain his lost love and Carraway’s cousin Daisy Buchanan, played by Carey Mulligan.  Daisy is living a life with her husband Tom, played by Joel Edgerton of old money but struggles with past feeling for Jay.  Jay has struggled to become the looked up to man that he is, and Carraway tries to make it through the journey of his acquaintance with Gatsby.

Going into this movie I had heard that there were some questionable choices during the making of this movie, and it stared DiCaprio and Maguire but I am glad to say that for me these things worked.  I think that this movie was well cast and played well off of each other.  My normal qualms about DiCaprio didn’t apply and I bought into him as the mysterious but dangerous Gatsby and I found myself being drawn along in the story by the narration of Maguire. I liked how the characters and actors played off of each other.

The music of this movie was in no way period, although by the clothing and locals it was definitely set in the twenties.  It uses a modern soundtrack, and to me this gave the movie something interesting and different.  The music was not jarring (for the most part), and I think that the music was weaved in well.

The best thing for me in the movie was how beautifully shot the cinematography was.  The sweeping shots, the use of color and accents was fantastic and there was lots of opulence where it was wanted, but worked with the back ground when the focus was on the characters. My own didn’t like the CG was during a raining scene toward the end of the movie, was it was obviously lots of fake rain.  I saw this movie in 2D and I think if I would have seen it in 3D it would have been too much.  There was a lot going on in this version with adding thing popping out at me, it would have taken me out of the movie experience. Also, Gatsby said "old sport" too much.

Like I said I enjoyed this movie, but I am unable to say how faithful to the book it was, as I have never read it.  I would think that for people who want this to be a complete authentic period movie, they will not like it. But for people who live drama with a focus on where everything fits together it is a go and see it.

My Rating: 3-