Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is a loud, glossy, occasionally brilliant failure. It wants to be a great American tragedy about money, class, and the corrupting power of dreams. Instead, it settles for a hollow spectacle, a movie that looks expensive but feels cheap. The cast is excellent, the music is distracting, and the story gets lost in the noise.
The film opens with Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arriving in New York in 1925. He rents a small house near the wealthy Long Island community where he hopes to sell bonds. Across the bay lives Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mysterious millionaire who throws wild parties every weekend. Nick becomes friends with Gatsby, and through him meets Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), Nick’s cousin Daisy’s husband, and Jordan Baker (Isla Fisher), a professional golfer. The story moves quickly, but the pace is frantic rather than urgent.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
The Soundtrack Problem
Luhrmann is famous for his musical style, and The Great Gatsby is packed with pop songs. There’s a version of “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey, “Holy Ground” by The xx, “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, and “One Trillion” by Jack White. The result is a constant hum of background noise that drowns out the actors.
This is a problem because the dialogue is sharp. Fitzgerald’s prose is witty, cutting, and full of social observation. Luhrmann’s adaptation is faithful in patches, but the music overwhelms the words. Characters talk over each other, and the audience can’t hear the punchlines. The soundtrack is a gimmick, and gimmicks rarely work when they’re this loud.
DiCaprio’s Gatsby
Leonardo DiCaprio gives a committed performance as Jay Gatsby. He plays the man with a wounded heart, a desperate need to win back his lost love, and a strange mixture of charm and cruelty. DiCaprio’s physical presence is electric; he moves with a grace that suggests both elegance and violence. His eyes are intense, and his smile is unsettling. When he dances, he’s hypnotic.
But the performance is also trapped by the script. Gatsby’s backstory is vague, and his motivations are shallow. He’s a man who threw a party for five years waiting for a girl to appear, but we never understand why. DiCaprio’s intensity can’t fill the gaps in the character. He’s a great actor in a weak role.
Maguire’s Nick and Edgerton’s Tom Buchanan
Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel. In the book, Nick is a thoughtful observer, a moral center, and a character who learns from his mistakes. In the film, he’s a passive spectator, a man who watches the drama unfold without doing much of anything. Maguire is handsome and sincere, but his role is reduced to a walking tour guide.
The film also adds a framing device: Nick narrates the story from a hospital bed, talking to a doctor. This is a clever idea, but it doesn’t land. The narration is delivered in a flat, unemotional voice, and it breaks the spell rather than deepening it. The book’s narrator is a character; the movie’s narrator is a convenience.
Joel Edgerton plays Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. In the novel, Tom is a brute, a racist, and a bully. He’s cruel to his wife and his mistress, and he represents everything wrong with the upper class. In the film, Edgerton plays him as a more sympathetic figure. He’s still arrogant, but he’s also hurt by Daisy’s affair. This is a bold choice, and it works for a while. But the film can’t sustain the contradiction. Tom is supposed to be the villain, and the movie keeps pulling back.
Edgerton’s performance is strong, but the script betrays him. The film wants to make Tom human, but it can’t make him likable. The result is a character who’s neither one thing nor the other. He’s a mess.
The Party Scenes and the Ending
The party scenes are the film’s high points. Gatsby’s mansion is a wonder of excess. The lights are bright, the drinks are flowing, and the guests are beautiful. The camera swoops and dips, capturing the energy of the moment. These scenes are visually stunning, and they capture the novel’s sense of luxury and decay.
But the parties are also empty. They’re beautiful, but they’re meaningless. The film spends too much time on spectacle and not enough on meaning. The characters drink and dance, but they don’t think. The book is about the emptiness of wealth, but the movie doesn’t dig into it the way the novel does.
The film ends with Gatsby’s death. He’s killed by George Wilson, Daisy’s husband, after a hit-and-run accident. The film shows the aftermath, with Nick watching as Gatsby is carried away. It’s a sad scene, but it’s also rushed. The film doesn’t let the tragedy breathe. It moves too fast, and the impact is lost.
The final image is Gatsby’s grave. It’s empty, and it’s covered in flowers. It’s a powerful image, but it’s a cliché. The film wants to be poetic, but it’s too literal. It tells us what to feel instead of showing us.
What Works and What Doesn’t
Here’s how the film’s strengths and weaknesses break down:
What Works
– The performances, especially DiCaprio’s and Edgerton’s
– The visual style, particularly the party scenes
– The ambition of the project
What Doesn’t Work
– The soundtrack, which drowns out the dialogue
– The flattening of Nick’s character
– The confusing treatment of Tom Buchanan
– The rushed ending
The Verdict
The Great Gatsby is a flawed film with moments of brilliance. It’s worth seeing for the performances and the visuals, but it’s a disappointment overall. It’s a movie that tries to capture the spirit of a great novel and fails to capture its soul.
