New Thing- Watch The Great Gatsby
Inspiration: The need to clear my head
Time: Over an hour
Bottom Line: Not as bad as I feared in the hands of this director
Reflection: The Great Gatsby is one of my all time favorite books. I find Gatsby's love of Daisy and the lengths that he is willing to go to win her heart (despite her vapid and destructive ways) to be both sympathetic and pathetic. It is a subitle study of human nature set against uproarious backdrop of the 1920's in a fantastic contrast of spirit and tone. So, I was very nervous when I saw that Baz Lurhmann (of Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge! fame) was going to be putting his stamp on this American literary classic. To my mind, his version of story telling is all flash and very little substance to the point that the story gets lost in all the showy visual and musical effects. You end up losing the story in a sea of glitz (which, granted, may not be a bad fit for the roaring 20's). After seeing the film, I still think that he uses to grand a gesture for the story, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. It started out louder than it ended. I though Leonardo DiCaprio was a great Gatsby and made up for a lot of the rest of it. Also, the costumes were excellent.
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