The Great Gatsby Film

While The Great Gatsby appears to be an opulent and grandiose interpretation of the novel of the same name, the film lacks substance beyond the 24 karat coated exterior. Not only does the film lack substance overall, the characters are equally, if not more, lackluster in presence and personality. The only main character with a semblance of charisma is our narrator, Nick Carraway, and even he is portrayed as a dull human being wrapped up in someone else’s affairs. As a whole, the film was a less than decent rendering of the novel, and twice as monotonous.

Baz Luhrmann’s bland rendition of The Great Gatsby fails to captivate the audience, point blank. Characterless actors fill the screen with a second-rate performance that does not live up to the novel. The relationship between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, in particular, is utterly passionless, and the chemistry between them is barely detectable. Jay Gatsby, the film’s lead, feels more detached than charming. Leonardo Dicaprio seems like a strange choice for the role, and it's clearly evident in his portrayal. Gatsby is supposed to be our mysterious, fascinating, and eventually, …show more content…
The film boasts a wide array of Top 40 musicians, including: Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Florence + The Machine, and Andre 3000. A personal favorite of mine is Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful,” which is repeated throughout the film, both as a track and as score. The song reflects the ill-fated romance budding between Daisy and Gatsby, and represents both the adoration and melancholy of their affair. The music encapsulates the era of the 1920s while also managing to modernize it for new generations. The bass added to songs like “Back To Black,” alludes to a darker tone underneath the surface, and thrusts us even further into the Daisy-Gatsby brand of lovesickness. If nothing else, at least the film managed to get arguably the most important element of a film