Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

First thing’s first, I have not read the book so I am reviewing this solely movie wise, not about if it was true to the book or not.

Plot: Nick Carraway, a young man trying to succeed in the success of bonds in New York during the 1920’s, meets his strange neighbour Gatsby. Jay Gatsby hosts wild and huge parties almost every night, no one has ever seen him or ever received an invite, so that is why it is so strange when Nick receives an invitation from Gatsby himself to a party. It is obvious that this is a rare occasion and Nick soon figures out Jay is in need of a huge favour. Gatsby is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy. They dated 5 years ago and wants to get her back, which would be fine, if she didn’t have a husband.

The movie was very entertaining, it made you laugh  and cry within it’s 2 and a half hour span. The 3D was nice, but not essential to the movie. So I don’t recommend paying the extra dollars for the extra dimension. The actors and actresses were wonderful as well, Leonardo Di Caprio was a convincing Gatsby however, I wasn’t attached to him or even intrigued by his passion for Daisy until his last scene, which I will not give away. Toby Maguire did a great job of playing Nick Carraway, I really loved how you could tell the difference between the young and eager Nick and the older Nick in the mental hospital. I loved how you could see near the end of the movie, the change in him. Carey Mulligan who played Daisy did a great job showing the two different personalities she portrays in front of the two different love interests. However my favourite was Joel Edgerton who played Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan, he was very intriguing and did a fabulous job, I could go on about his wonderful job for hours!

I am going to end on the negative note however, this movie is based in the time of the 1920’s which had some amazing jazz music, which I wish they would have showed. The director, in my opinion, did a terrible job of staying true to the time era, the graphics for the buildings and costumes were great, however the soundtrack consisted of many present time music such as Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Lana Del Ray. I also would have liked to see the graphics and quality of the film itself to be as if it were from the 1920’s, I believe that would have been a more interesting approach. Perhaps making it in black and white or even just saturating the colour and make it a low quality, grainy type resolution to get more of the 1920’s feel into the movie.

Overall this was a great movie that I recommend.

Rating: 8.5/10