The Great Gatsby came out in theatres on May 10th. This movie was led by two great actors, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio. They portrayed their characters with great fluency, making it seem easy to transform into a completely different person. Tobey Maguire, who has been trying to get away from the Spiderman label, played a brilliant Nick Carraway. Leonardo DiCaprio will be an Oscar snub if he isn’t a nominee for actor of the year, for playing none other than Jay Gatsby.
This movie is based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”. It is obviously a newer version of a much slower paced book, so Hollywood has picked up the tempo just a bit. It starts off with Nick Carraway talking to a man about Gatsby. He spoke with such admiration. Almost as if Gatsby was a mythical being which he just had the pleasure of knowing personally. The man asks Nick to write about the stories he wouldn’t tell out loud. Nick picks up a typewriter and begins to write the intimate and tragic story of The Great Jay Gatsby.
For the first part of the movie, Nick Carraway is just getting acclimated to New York City. He is only familiar with his distant cousin Daisy Buchanan, but the first person to greet him is Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. Tom brings him to a beautiful room were curtains weave all around. They gently block the sun and help compliment the luxurious white dress Daisy is wearing. Tom and Daisy’s home is a mansion, seemingly built to show off the excess wealth they have together. It was a classic dream-come-true house. Carraway has never seen anything like it before.
Nick Carraway lives on the other side of the bay, surprisingly able to see Daisy’s home from his window. His home is much less expensive, and is more like an abandoned shed. But he manages to live with no troubles. But every weekend he notices that it is regular for hundreds of people to flock to his neighbor’s house for a gigantic party. These parties don’t require any form of I.D. or invitation. People of all variety just simply show up, drink, dance, and leave. Nick watches but never attends. He just looks through the window above the hectic crowd and sees a man looking back. The mystery of who this was and what he wanted was starting to get to Nick, but he then receives an invitation from Gatsby to attend the next party. Until this point, Nick had only heard about Gatsby.
Nick meets Gatsby at the party and is instantly in love with the way Mr. Gatsby lives his life. He said “his smile was one of those smiles that made you feel like you were hand chosen to witness it.” He addressed everyone as “old sport” and had perfect manners. He was a god among peasants.
After a while, they become good friends, and Gatsby wants to ask Nick for a favor but cant. So a mutual friend of both of them, (Jordan Baker) asks Nick for Gatsby. Gatsby’s favor is to have tea with Daisy at Nick’s House. Nick is unsure about setting up his married cousin on a date with another man, but it is Gatsby and his envy forced him to say yes.
Nick realizes that there is a past between Daisy and Gatsby when they spend hours talking closely and never breaking focus on one another’s faces. They hung on every word one another said as if they would die if they didn’t. It was obvious that they loved to be with each other, but Daisy’s husband was in the way.
Gatsby had revealed on the date that he bought his house right across the bay from Daisy just to be close to her. There was a green light that shined at night for boats to see the dock, by Daisy’s house, that almost haunted Gatsby. Nick had seen him reaching out at it at night, only to lower his hand in defeat. Almost as if the light was teasing Gatsby for being so close to his dream only to be reminded that he is across the bay.
The love between Daisy and Gatsby is forbidden but strong. They want to be with each other, but Gatsby’s love for Daisy is greater than her love for him. Gatsby believes that Daisy just needs time to realize that she should leave Tom Buchanan and live with him forever. However, Daisy thinks Gatsby wants too much.
The main conflict of the story is a must see. I am not going to describe it or even hint at what it’s about because it should be experienced as the director and F. Scott Fitzgerald wanted.
Leonardo DiCaprio shows off his brilliant ability to make the audience feel the intense, sad, and euphoric emotions in his part as Gatsby. In the famous line, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” DiCaprio forces you to consider Gatsby as being madly in love, clinging to whatever he can have hope for. A desperate but irresistible love for Daisy forces Gatsby to be careless and threatens his own wellbeing because of it.
This movie favors people who haven’t read the book. If you have read the book and like seeing little secrets and figuring out hidden clues. This movie ruins it for you. It literally describes every little detail of Gatsby’s madness and the thoughts of Nick Carraway. But other than that it is a great movie to watch with a group of friends. It has a modern twist to the original movie, but keeps pace with the story. It’s a must see for critics and a good option for the family.