Gatsby gets the Baz treatment

Film review: The Great Gatsby

MANILA, Philippines - Warner’s The Great Gatsby is the fifth film treatment of the classic novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Directed by Baz Luhrmann (Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Australia), the film opened this year’s Cannes, and is one of the more eagerly anticipated films of the year.

With Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, what’s not to like in terms of how the cast was impeccably assembled. But of course, whenever a modern classic novel like Gatsby is brought to film, there is that underlying trepidation that the director and producers may have bitten off more than they can chew (as Kerouac’s On the Road demonstrated). I personally liked the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow Gatsby film treatment, so I was curious to see how Luhrmann’s “more is more” film philosophy would take this story somewhere new and worthwhile.

I first read the novel when I was in my teens and I loved the Carraway character — Fitzgerald’s alter ego. His dissection of how the American Dream goes face to face with social mobility, societal strictures and prejudices, and how the era also ushered in the Jazz Age of excess and style over substance, was spot on social commentary in the guise of a novel.

Luhrmann’s love for the novel is evident — his lush photography, setting up of scenes, dizzying close-ups and panoramic shots all adding to the heady atmosphere of the film. And while some may criticize that the first half of the film may also be guilty of “style over substance,” he does get down to the meat of the story during the last half of the film. And say what you may about the film being slow in taking off on the real story behind Gatsby, the film is always eminently watchable.

DiCaprio does his Gatsby under Luhrmann’s strict supervision, at times overdoing the “posing” aspect of the character; while Mulligan does give her Daisy the fragility and instability we sensed while reading the novel. Maguire as Carraway tries a little too hard to retreat into the background and play “fly on the wall,” when the fireworks between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan commence. And that is a shame, as Carraway was the moral compass of the novel, while Luhrmann seems to be more fascinated and supportive of Gatsby as genuine hero — and not the almost anti-hero he was in my reading of the novel.

The Jay Z-meets-Jay G musical soundtrack of the film, which scared me a bit when I watched the trailers, is actually not bad and is tastefully done within the context of the total film experience. So ultimately, this is very much a Luhrmann film treatment, his interpretation of how to make Gatsby relevant and immediate for today’s audience. While purists may decry the over-the-top aspects of the treatment, one has to acknowledge the vitality and energy of the approach. Film is above all a visual experience, and Luhrmann does know how to “paint a pretty picture.”