The Great Gatsby Does it Big

By Richard Hernandez

Many might leave the theatre wondering if F. Scott Fitzgerald would approve of Bah Luhrmann’s adaptation of his famous work “The Great Gatsby” but others might walk away wondering if they approved of it.

The film’s been one of the most hyped movies of the year having both pop fangirls and nerds lining up to watch the spectacle . Gatsby is well known name around the hallways around any school due to school work related to the topic, but unlike most mandatory reads this book is a student favorite. So it’s no surprise that students would be excited to see a highly budgeted film adaptation.
The movie is true to the book. It’s script is almost line for line the same as the novel, but as expected Hollywood has to do it bigger, and that they do. The film is beautifully captured making it seem as if Gatsby lived in a fantasy world. The characters come off as unreal, and the overall feel of the movie is dreamlike.
Perhaps Luhrmann was trying to make the movie capture what he thought Fitzgerald would of thought of to be “the American dream” or perhaps he was just putting his big budget to use.
The title character was played perfectly by Leonardo Decaprio who proved to be the perfect actor for the role, like many believed. Tom Buchanan, played by Joel Edgerton, was the other highlight of the movie being played wonderfully by Edgerton. The rest of the cast however didn’t seem to fit their roles very well. Toby Maguire seems completely out of place and unneeded for the movie, which posses a problem since he is portraying the main character. Daisy, played by Carey Mulligan, also didn’t add much to the movie except for giving the audience a cute face to look at.
The movie’s biggest strengths are the work that it was based on and a pretty impressive soundtrack produced by the one and only Jay Z, like I said Hollywood does it big.
The Great Gatsby is a visually stunning and impressive movie backed by a stellar story and a not so stellar cast, but why take my word for it? I’m just a kid typing on his laptop. Go check it out, your teachers would love it if you did!

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