The Great Gatsby (2012)

I like F. Scott's Fitzgerald's book of the same title, but I have always been a little perplexed by it's continued popularity.  I have enjoyed the previous film interpretations of the novel, and while I looked forward to this latest version of an oft told tale, I was surprised by it.  For once, I actually got a version of the story that had an impact on me.

The narrativ eof the movie sticks largely to the story, but it has a grittier, darker edge from beginning to end.  Leonardo DiCaprio's Gatsby has a thin veneer of foppishness that does little to hide the tension and desperation that is so near the surface that it cannot be missed.  That is the Gatsby I feel in the book, a man who cannot sit still, who is much like the modern day plutocrats--he seeks approval, not just of his audience, the guests who attend his lavish, almost circus like parties, but the adoration and attention of one woman--Daisy Buchanon.  Carey Mulligan plays Daisy with the even handedness that the role demands--she is pretty, but she is shallow.  She is attracted to Gatsby, but she seeks more than just money.  She needs respectability and he really can't give that to her.  She is not likable and that is very clear in this interpretation.  Very nicely done.

Nick Carraway is the one telling the story and while he knows everyone's secrets, he is largely generous in his judgements of those around him.  He works and he lives on the very edges of the world of the super rich because he is Daisy's cousin--but his loyalties soon move towards Gatsby because he seems of all of them to be the most virtuous.  All that despite his bootlegger ties and his underworld compatriots.  It is a much more intense, and maybe a little hyperbolically told story than previous films, and I liked it very much.