Director: Baz Luhrmann

Writer: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce

Based On: Novel (The Great Gatsby) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton

Tomatometer: 48/32/84 (all critics, top critics, audience)

Spoiler-free Summary: Nick Carraway moves to Long Island, across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her wealthy husband, Tom.  Nick’s next-door neighbor, and eventual bossom buddy, is a reclusive millionaire named Jay Gatsby.  Gatsby often throws lavish parties and spends much of his time with celebrities and politicians.  For some reason, though, Gatsby takes special interest in Daisy.

Two Cents: Baz Luhrmann can’t see the forest for the trees.

A few years ago, I had an argument with a writing partner over a screenplay on which we had been working.  He wanted the screenplay to read like a Mitch Hedberg routine – one-liner after one-liner.  Eventually, I successfully explained that he was getting caught up in the details.  The two most important elements of any movie are its story and its characters.  If you’ve got a good story, with intriguing plot points and developed characters, that story can be greatly enhanced with a well-timed joke, the perfect song, an authentic costume, or a unique camera angle.  However, it doesn’t work the other way around.  A laundry list of fancy details can’t save a weak story with insipid characters.

Baz Luhrmann has always strived to blend filmmaking with other artforms.  He’s clearly a fan of music, theater, architecture, dance, fashion, and loads of additional creative pastimes.  Unfortunately, in his re-imagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale, Luhrmann has completely forgotten to tell the story.  He’s focused all of his energy on the artistic details of his film, almost as if he assumes his entire audience has already read the novel, letting him off the hook of bothering to retell it.  The costumes are gorgeous, the set pieces are stunning, and the artistry is top-notch (Expect a few Oscar nominations, including one for Luhrmann’s wife, costume designer Catherine Martin.), but Luhrmann has fallen far short of his (presumed) goal of making a great film.  On the other hand, if I’m mistaken, and his goal was to make an eye-popping, yet mind-numbing, waste of time, then bravo!

The cast doesn’t help Luhrmann out too much, either.  Leo is a god.  If he were a woman, he’d have Meryl Streep doing his laundry.  Although his performance as Gatsby doesn’t rank as one of his best, he clearly outshines the film’s other stars.  Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan seem to be trying their best, but Luhrmann spends no time at all developing their characters (some of that blame can be placed on Fitzgerald’s shoulders).  Edgerton also needs to take a lesson from Leo on pulling off an accent.  Tobey Maguire is as boring as he always is, but he throws in his signature angry face a couple of times, prompting the viewer to consider the possibility that Maguire’s friendship with DiCaprio isn’t the only reason he’s in the movie.  It probably is the only reason, but, at least, there’s a shred of doubt.

Finally, we come to Jay-Z.  Lots of hype surrounded the announcement that Hov himself would be compiling the soundtrack for Gatsby.  Luhrmann had the idea of making Gatsby’s parties seem more enticing to people who are actually alive by combining the culture of the 1920s with today’s music.  If you’re looking to mix anything with hip-hop, Jigga is a good person to have in your corner.  However, Luhrmann probably could have knocked a few million dollars off the budget, had he just handed a production assistant a note that read, “Download some Jay-Z and Beyoncé songs.”  Yes, the music is great, and the soundtrack will sell nicely (If you’re one of the six humans who has purchased a soundtrack in the last 15 years, you’ll probably buy this one, too.), but the soundtrack isn’t more front-and-center than the soundtrack in any other movie.  Some “live” performances of the songs would have gone a long way.  You got Andre 3000 to cover an Amy Winehouse song, but you didn’t put him in the movie?  The guy was born to play a ’20s entertainer!  That’s like asking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to help you get something off the middle shelf at the supermarket.  Jay-Z may be a musical genius, but even the self-proclaimed Michael Jordan of rap couldn’t save this mess of a movie.  Thanks to Gatsby‘s scores on Rotten Tomatoes, Mr. Carter is now a member of the 40/30 club, as well.  

Should I/Shouldn’t I: If you’re curious, I understand.  However, there’s really no reason for you to see this movie.  If you download the soundtrack and flip through some still photography of the sets and costumes, you’ll get the point and you’ll save two hours.  You can spend that time reading the Cliffs Notes, instead.

Sundae Rating: One scoop