The Great Gatsby



Leonardo diCaprio - the 21st Century Gatsby



Once in a rare while, I’ll see a 30-second TV trailer for a movie I had no idea was being made and every hair on my body will stand up like it’s been fried. It happened a fortnight ago when I saw a blurb for “The Great Gatsby” opening on May 10. I can’t explain why, but I just had to see that movie.

So I did. Gods love her, Ter wouldn’t likely have gone on her own, but she came with me last weekend and wants to see it again before it hits DVD. I’ve been playing the soundtrack thin (except for two heavier-duty rap tracks—I’ve never been big on rap and Mr. Beyoncé produced this one) all week. Everything about this production was flawless: the story, the cast, the setting, the costumes, the music, everything hit the right note and left us stunned as the credits began to roll. Walking back onto the street was like beaming onto another planet; I wasn’t sure where we’d left the car and couldn’t conjure the words to ask. We hardly said a word until we got home and then I think it was Ter saying, “We have to see that again.”

Five days later, I’m still aglow with the beauty of it all. I was grateful to learn from the pre-show that Baz Luhrmann produced and directed, as I may otherwise have experienced the same initial WTF? reaction I had with “Moulin Rouge” some years ago. I came this close to sacking that one until my right brain kicked in and the story started to make sense. Not so with Gatsby. This time, I was ready for the genius instead of resistant to it. (BTW, “Moulin Rouge” has become one of my favourite go-to pictures when I want a good cry.)

The cool thing about Luhrmann is that he uses modern day music and effects to tell a story from another time. He totally nailed the crazy excess of the idle rich in the Roaring Twenties, and underneath it all was this wrenching love story that broke my heart even as I was dazzled by the decadent chaos around it. The players were awesome, really talented actors who aren’t so famous that they couldn’t make the characters real. I think, too, that I may be a closet Leonardo diCaprio fan, as I’ve liked him in everything I’ve seen though I’ve not actively sought out his films. He’s the big name in this one and he played the perfect Jay Gatsby. Perfect, I tell you! He’s grown into quite the movie star, in the same class as Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck and all those guys from the golden age of cinema. He’s got that rare charisma that improves as a man matures. George Clooney has it. So does Brad Pitt. Actually, a few actors in our generation have it, but the films themselves are less interested in capturing glamour these days, alas.

I haven’t read the book so I don’t know how true the script was to the original. All I can say is that it hit all the notes for me as a moviegoer. It also hit me in another odd way, but that’s another blog entry. Right now I have a story of my own to finish writing. “Between the Storms” is past the halfway mark and the climax is looming. I want to push it as far as I can today, as I’ve got other commitments tomorrow and this weekend which, while I will enjoy them, will also demand that I tear my gaze from the stars and flip my extrovert switch to “on”.

Before I forget, I’ve had to include a link to “Young and Beautiful” from the soundtrack. My inner romantic swoons every time I hear it. Gorgeous!

Later, old sport.