I recently went to see The Great Gatsby in 2D at the cinema with my boyfriend. After months and months of seeing trailers and teasers for the movie, I was definitely excited. I haven't seen any other film versions and had only read the book a few years ago, so I'd say I was a newbie to the film, and sadly (and it's not nice to say) I was quite disappointed.
Overall, the film felt like it was trying to put way too much into such a short space of time (which wasn't even short at a 2hr 23mins running time). Some characters I wished there were more of, some I wish there were less. Tobey Maguire, who I am not a huge fan of anyway was ok, however not brilliant. Leonardo DiCaprio on the other hand was fantastic. The character had just enough time of suspense that it made the reveal so much more exciting, and DiCaprio played the role of millionaire ego with a childish, sensitive side perfectly. He was the perfect choice for the role.
As I didn't see it in 3D, I cannot fully talk about the films aesthetics however what we mainly noticed was that in some scenes, it looked incredibly fake. For example, a night time scene under the trees was lovely, however it looked like the actors were under different lighting from the background and really took you out of the film after you noticed it. Music was here and there, I would have preferred more music from the era in the party scenes especially, however the intro to New York the music works perfectly. The editing was excellent for the most part, however I didn't enjoy all the river crossings and a particular scene in which Gatsby is taking Carraway into the city in a yellow car is awful, which different change in speeds and shots where there is a voice but the actors mouth isn't moving.
The main beauty of the film, and it's main part which I enjoyed was the glitz and glamour at the parties. It felt where the movie was at home and was every bit exciting and colourful as I pictured in the book. The clothing, the dancing and set design was fantastic. Amazing work by Tiffany aswell for providing such beautiful jewellery which fitted the era perfectly.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed some parts of the movie, however it wasn't as near as a good as I was hoping for.
★★☆☆☆
