The Great Gatsby (2013) 6/10

Starring : Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton
Director : Baz Luhrmann
Running Time : 143 mins

Nick Carraway (Maguire) moves to Long Island where he starts to wonder about his curious reclusive neighbour Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio), a man few have ever seen in spite of his regular lavish parties. When he does meet Gatsby, he discovers the man is deeply in love with Carraway’s cousin Daisy Buchanan (Mulligan) and had moved to the area to be close to her and try to win her back from her domineering husband Tom (Edgerton).

The score in this movie did at times spoil the movie for me – it’s fine to take a modern song and give it a twenties twist, or vice versa, but the hip-hop moments felt silly to me; I wouldn’t have expected Noel Coward ditties in Boyz N The Hood!?! Visually the first half of the movie is strongest, but in terms of content and acting the second half wins hands-down (largely thanks to the lack of modern music spoiling the period setting). Where Luhrmann managed to keep style while having modern tunes in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, here he loses something along the way. This is worth watching if you’re not easily distracted and don’t mind being pulled out of the moment during musical scenes.

You’ll like this if you liked : Moulin Rouge