It Seems Women Could Rescue Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’
This wasn’t in the script. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of the roaring twenties, The Great Gatsby, was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. With a huge budget, an all-star cast and various exotic filming locations, Gatsby was supposed to be the film of 2013. Hell, it was even supposed to be the movie that won Leonardo Dicaprio that elusive Oscar for best actor. Sure, that could still happen, but it's hugely unlikely.
There’s no way to avoid the fact that Gatsby has been mauled by the critics. Though some have pointed in the direction of the stunning visuals, it soon became all too clear that Luhrmann forget one key element: Fitzgerald’s classic tale, the best possible material any director could have to work with. “This dreadful film even derogates the artistry of Fitzgerald, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" while living on Long Island and in Europe,” said Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal. J.R Jones of the Chicago Reader said, “Baz Luhrmann is exactly the wrong person to adapt such a delicately rendered story, and his 3D feature plays like a ghastly Roaring 20s blowout at a sorority house.” R. Kurt Oseland of Slant magazine pondered what could have been, saying, “When The Great Gatsby actually stops to breathe, there is some greatness to be found, however brief it may be.”
It’s certainly looking as though The Great Gatsby will recoup its $105 million budget, and it’s $3 million on Thursday raced past the $2 million earned by Oz: The Great and Powerful during its preview opening. Sam Raimi’s movie grossed an impressive $485 million, with reports of a sequel surfacing pretty much immediately.
The Great Gatsby, starring DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire and Jason Clarke is in cinemas now.
Carey Mulligan [L] and Joel Edgerton [R] In The Great Gatsby