The Love Song of Jay Gatsby

I saw The Great Gatsby in an early premiere.  I had mixed feelings before I saw it as I had been extremely excited to see the movie when I learned Gatsby would be played by Leonardo DiCaprio but I grew worried when Carey Mulligan (although an excellent actress) was cast instead of Scarlett Johansson as Daisy, Tobey Maguire was to be the eternal observer/our eyes for that era as Nick Carraway, and especially because Baz Luhrmann was to direct the film.  Luhrmann is unpredictable and I am not the biggest fan of Moulin Rouge!.  I did enjoy his version of Romeo + Juliet, punk and angsty, is interesting with two great leads, Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

Needless to say I went in with expectations lowered.  Luckily, I liked The Great Gatsby more than I thought I would and more than the critics' reviews allowed us to believe people would.  Originally the film was supposed to come out in December before the Oscars and got pushed back to May. 

Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby takes too long to get started.  It also seems to take too much pleasure in the excessiveness it purports to show for the purpose of paying homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's analysis of the time.  It's a world where the takers take all and those who wish to be a part of that world never truly are.

I didn't particularly care for Luhrmann's cartoony, garish direction.  For Gatsby, it's easier to picture a darker vision.  The middle and the end of the film is gripping, though.

Gatsby and Daisy show us what truly tragic, destructive love looks like

Most of the actors do seem to be miscast, but they try their best.  Mulligan's Daisy isn't totally wrong, but Daisy is supposed to be more aware, shallow and selfish rather than skittish and overly sensitive or vulnerable.  Maguire is not right as Nick.  An actor with more depth is needed; perhaps like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, or (go along with me here) Gabriel Mann.  DiCaprio steers the film and is simply excellent.  He is also beautiful to withhold as he brings that era to life and seems to have been born in the wrong time.  His clothing fits him effortlessly and his golden, sleek hair shines in the sun.  Joel Edgerton, who plays Tom Buchanan (Daisy's brutish husband), comes the closest to matching DiCaprio's strength.

The soundtrack was built up more than the movie itself.  The theme song, Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey, to Daisy and Gatsby's love affair is both haunting and epic.

Funnily enough I came across this poem that I had written in high school during an academic program to Oxford, England.  I had read The Great Gatsby in then and I remember writing about what it meant to me.  I remember feeling for Gatsby and seeing that utter humanness in him; he just wants to belong.

Ode to Mr. Gatsby 

Brilliant but blind

Gatsby, who are you trying to be?

Lost in the place you know, lonely,

            in the middle of a deafening crowd.

Daisy, deceptive as the flower, seemingly

simple and sweet.

You loved her.

An obsession willing

            to sacrifice your life, hurting

            others.

Getting hurt yourself.

Acts of ultimate betrayal.

Gatsby, you are pretending

The privileged who lives untouched,

            fall separate and numb to the world.

They welcomed your amateur acting game.

Trying so hard to be seen in an invisible world,

I see you now,

You disappear.