The Great Gatsby is now showing at Manchester’s Cornerhouse – get your ticket’s here.
Great books rarely make great films. Immediately you have to contend with an audience who know the story intimately and have developed their own imagining of it.
The beautiful sorrow of this timeless classic and the delicious prose of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s social commentary were always going to be a challenge to translate to the big screen.
The story of Jay Gatsby is the definitive example of how life gets in the way of love and foolish aspirations damage the one thing it was hoped would be saved.
But more importantly, it is the story of one man’s unfaltering hope and the extraordinary lengths he will go to amongst the prejudice of 1920’s prohibition America.
Gatsby is a self-made man and host to the most extravagant, lavish parties New Yorkers have ever seen.
Little is known but much is rumoured about the enigmatic creature who tiptoes through his magnificent displays of wealth.
The jazz-pumped hip-hop soundtrack and surrealist approach to committing the pageantry to film is something only Baz Luhrmann could have done.
But for Gatsby, the luxury of his bustling mansion is all just so that he can lay eyes on a woman that poverty, war and marriage have kept him from.
His hope is embodied by the green light that signifies Daisy Buchanan’s presence across the bay but they are separated by more than just the Long Island water.
Leonardo DiCaprio expertly portrays the arrogant facade that shields the insecurities of a man in love and whose whole purpose for being is not quite close enough to touch.
His gentle relationship with the young and excitable Nick Carraway allows for many a tender moment where Gatsby’s vulnerability is laid bare.
Nick’s role as a mere observer to events and narrator required an actor who could be allowed to blend into the background, a role that Tobey Maguire performs well (whether this is praise for him as an actor, I’m not so sure).
Charmingly awkward, the audience learns to trust his perspective which in turn adds gravity to the profound comments the story requires him to make.
At the same time, we learn to trust his appraisal of his fellow characters and our opinions change with his.
The first appearance of Carey Mulligan as Daisy dazzles Nick and her captivating beauty is noticeable to all.
Mulligan’s delicate facial expressions perfectly evoke the turbulent emotions that torment her while keeping her shallow disaffection evident.
Although the casting is faultless throughout and the costumes extravagant, it is the combination of DiCaprio and Mulligan that steals the show.
Despite regret that certain scenes were excluded, I found myself struggling to pick fault and ultimately left the cinema with the great weight of Gatsby firmly fixed on my shoulders.
The film conquers what other adaptations have struggled to manage, it masters its own identity while staying true to the book and the legend.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures via YouTube, with thanks.
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