Gatsby has always had trouble coming to the big screen, with each incarnation being worse than the last. It looked like Baz Luhrmann’s adaptations was destined to repeat the past, but a combination of style, story and Leonardo DiCaprio managed to make this adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel the best one yet.

The Great Gatsby is extravagant and new.  Audiences will not be bored by Luhrmann’s ’20s, filled with Jay Z, Will I Am and The White Stripes. Gatsby’s parties grab more than just Daisy’s attention, and we love him for it.  This movie will disappoint many a high school prom-goer with its portrayal of, “The Good Life.”

Beyond the booze and beauty lie characters that make you think. Every character has something you hate about them, some flaw, but almost all of them also have something you love. Even given the careless and detested Tom Buchannan, rising star Joel Edgerton finds moments to pull the audience’s pity for a blink of an eye.

The greatest accomplishments of the film, however, are its introductions. Nick (Tobey Maguire) is found unkempt and sullen in a psychiatric facility. Daisy’s entrance is everything the book describes, curtains, tempting smile and all. Tom plays golf while riding a horse. The coup de grace of course is Gatsby himself, Old Sport, but I’ll leave that to Luhrmann’s cameras.

Gatsby is the heart and soul of the novel and the film. His mystery and lovable boyishness come together in uniform respect when DiCaprio flawlessly emulates words often directly from Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. He is everything you want him to be, and that is what Gatsby is.  We take the ride with Nick, and we make the crash as well.

So many of the scenes beautifully adapt the novel into a visual feast, but this doesn’t mean the film does not take liberties. Gatsby sometimes comes off as clingy and weak, instead of hopeful and eager. Times where his boyishness is something to be honored, like when Daisy is reinstated in his life, later become adolescent and immature. By the end of the film he is found yelling, and discovered to be dishonorable.  The finale redeems such things, but Fitzgerald would be dishonored to watch the Gatsby of the film “evolve” away from the eternally hopeful man we fell in love with in the novel.

In spite of these disappointments, Gatsby never ceases to amaze us with his style, eloquence, and hope.  We come to despise so much of humanity throughout the movie, people that deserve to be despised.  But Gatsby still emulates something above them, something more. Just as Nick says, “They’re a rotten crowd.  You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”

–Zack Short

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars