Movie review: The Great Gatsby

                                    Still from The Great Gatsby



F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a novel that automatically lent itself to style, revelling as the story does in the dazzle of 1920s America with its unabashed hedonism and moral decay. Luhrmann on cue has crafted his most resplendent film yet. Savoured in 3D, the Roaring Twenties bring alive what heights cinema as a visual spectacle can scale.

But there is another aspect to Fitzgerald's novel. Lurking beneath all that jazz are the quieter, gloomier notes of angst, which really gave the novel its focus.

Luhrmann's thrust, going by this film, was never fully to explore the dark side. He may have catered a feast for the senses but he struggles with the emotional conflicts and the tragedy they bring in the wake.

Fitzgerald drew from his own life to create the budding author Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), who lands as neighbour to the extravagant young millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) on arrival in New York. He soon becomes a part of Gatsby's world, and the lavish parties the man often throws. But as time passes, Nick starts spotting chinks in the happy picture. Emotions such as true love, loyalty and commitment seem to have little value in this world of excesses.

A Jay-Z soundtrack would seem unlikely for a world imagined by Fitzgerald, but the rapper has moved away from typical sounds and it works well. In itself, the novel is a popular read. And the fact that Hollywood has already filmed Fitzgerald's work thrice before since the silent era (plus one TV film) proves its undying appeal. Luhrmann and company were at least starting off with that advantage.

A big draw at the global box-office has to be Leonardo DiCaprio. The star of the show straddles flawlessly Gatsby’s range from the powerful to the pathetic. Tobey Maguire by contrast is a suitably restrained spectator to all the drama. Carey Mulligan (playing Nick's cousin and Gatsby's lover Daisy) brings out the contradictions of her role well.

Finally Amitabh Bachchan, in a one-scene cameo as Meyer Wolfsheim. He tells the world what we always knew: Big B is an actor who needs just that one scene.