My wife enjoyed the movie
after her five minute nap during the first twenty minutes. I have to admit I liked it also. I agree with my daughter about the signature
failure of Tobey Maguire as Nick. He’s
the character who’s supposed to move the story along and generate some of the object
lessons. Maguire was just not up to the
task and the boyish buffoonery that served him so well in Spiderman is
completely inappropriate here. Peter Parker
is no Nick Caraway.
There are a bunch of other misses
in the cast. Luhrman should definitely look for a new casting director. The Buchanans are completely miscast with two
actors I usually like a lot. Mulligan is
way too sympathetic to portray the pathetic Daisy and the same goes for
Edgerton playing her husband. Maybe that
was something Luhrman was going for but the last word that should be used to
describe this couple is likable. The CGI
was cartoonishly bad and fails in comparison with other big movies (the bar is
set so high nowadays).
The only character that is
spot on is Leonardo as Jay Gatsby. I’m not
a big fan of his but I have to admit he is perfect for this role and
delivers. You can see the poor boy
straining to maintain his illusions of wealth and hopeless devotion to a woman
not worthy of him.
The story, as it always is (and
what makes this such a frustrating classic), is timeless. The danger of living in an idealized past and
of ascribing quality to the wealthy despite all evidence to the contrary still
rings true – but God can it be depressing.
Since the Sox were back to underperforming
again I spent the rest of the night going another way and watching some trashy
horror flicks courtesy of Hammer Studios which left me with the feeling of “what
were they thinking?” Even Buddy seemed
appalled.
Gatsby stuck with me though
and I guess that’s the sign of a good movie.
 |
| Buddy Back From One of His Romps |
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