8/10
I think critics have been a little rough on old Baz. Or we're a little too overprotective of our literary giants. Or my expectations had been sufficiently lowered by the bad press that I was able to be pleasantly surprised. But either way, damn it if I didn't enjoy The Great Gatsby. Okay okay, so the grand theme of the crumbling of the American dream has been pushed aside in favor of the central love story - are you surprised? And wasn't the love story still handled well, and faithfully (no pun intended there)? Luhrmann brings the requisite overdose of glitz and flash that Gatsby demands, and while he can't hope to bring the depth of the characters to the screen, does a good enough job in giving them believable souls...you can say he makes them too empathetic and not grotesque enough, but you might accuse Fitzgerald of the same.
Unfortunately things that were subtlely nudged at in the book are driven into your forehead with a sledgehammer here, but again, it was expected. That, combined with the typical Baz Luhrmann movie flaw (starting off so hot that the movie feels like it's sinking when it comes time to tell the story), are the main drags here. But I felt the movie overcame the latter complaint in a way that Moulin Rouge did not. The acting is all very good: I read some unflattering things about DiCaprio's performance but I thought he was fine.
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