The Great Gatsby
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Movie Reviews of The Great Gatsby
Movie Review: Toby Stephens is HOT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have grown old, and I have loved Robert Redford in the role of Gatsby for years, but Toby Stephens (who is the actress Maggie Smith's son, by the way) is a close second in my opinion. Mira Sorvino may not have been the best choice for the part, but Paul Rudd puts forth an admirable performance. If you like Stephens in this role, check him out in Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre as Mr. Rochester. In both Jane Eyre and in this one, a person cannot remove their eyes from him. He dominates the screen.Movie Review: Awesome movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked this movie very much! I saw the original first and was recommended to check out this version. I like this one much better than the original. Highly recommend it!Movie Review: Movie Review for the 2001 Version of The Great Gatsby
Summary: 4 Stars
The movie The Great Gatsby, the 2001 version modeled after the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the life of mid-westerner Nick for one summer in which he moves to New York to pursue a job in the bond business. Once there he becomes involuntarily entangled in the strange love lives of Gatsby, Tom and his wife Daisy. Gatsby has come from rags to riches in an attempt to win back the Daisy he knew five years ago. After confrontations occur, jealously and resentment for the competition for Daisy rises leading to a disastrous end.Two performances really stand out in this movie, and they were those of Paul Rudd who portrayed Nick and Toby Stephens as Gatsby. I really felt that Stephens was the perfect man for the role because not only did he have the smirk down pact, but he looked like the kind of person who would be involved in questionable affairs. However, Rudd dominated the screen as Nick. He really did an amazing job at portraying Nick not wanting to be involved in all these situations between Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and the others.
During parts of the movie I felt that I could really pick up the book and read along, because the movie followed the book so closely. Either there were parts that the movie added or that I didn¡¯t pick up on while I was reading the book, but two really effective were the cuff links and Owl Eyes being described as looking like the man with the glasses on the billboard. These additions helped the viewer to see the symbolism that F. Scott Fitzgerald used in his writing that is harder to see on a screen by over emphasizing what each object stood for. For example, I believe that the director wanted to use the cuff links to show how Gatsby kept hanging on to Daisy, and then when he died Nick threw the cuff links into the water because Gatsby was now free from his constant want for Daisy and all she stood for, money. Owl Eyes could have been interpreted as God, and seeing all of the corruption that was going on because he always seems to be at all the parties, and looking over and watching Nick. One fault I found was that at the beginning the movie showed exactly what was going to happen at the end. Even though the book hints what may come it doesn¡¯t tell it strait out like the movie did.
Robert Markowitz did a great job directing the production, but I believe that at some parts the scene changes were over dramatized making the movie seem almost TV movie-ish. However, the sets, especially Gatsby¡¯s mansion, and costumes, such as Gatsby¡¯s silver and gold suit, were very laudable.
I hope that you see this Mr. M!
Movie Review: Try it, you'll like it
Summary: 4 Stars
To date, this is the best version of the classic tale available. Granted, it will never substitute for reading the book, but nothing should. The book is incredible. This outranks the 1974 version by far. Mira Sorvino is almost perfect as the careless single-minded Daisy with a "voice full of money." Toby Stephens is awkward as the all-american Gatsby, but he looks the part, at any rate. Paul Rudd blends marvelously into the scenery as Nick, emerging when he must but always keeping the spotlight on Gatsby and Daisy. Martin Donovan plays Tom very well, playing a complete boor with sympathy achieves an interesting effect. The rest of the cast is well put together, and the script, representing perhaps 25% of the book, pulls out the major events, slims down sub-plots, and gets to the meat of the story. In essence, it tells the story that you remember even years after reading the book. It's hardly complete, but it's excellently edited. Honestly, I think the measure of a movie is in how you feel walking away from it, and I walked away feeling some modicum of the way I felt after the first time I read the book; that's an accomplishment. Besides, how can you really dislike something that wraps up with one of literature's most lyrical lines?Movie Review: The Great Gatsby
Summary: 4 Stars
This was actually a fairly faithful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's book. Many of the lines will sound very familiar. Whether or not that faithfulness is a good thing depends on your perspective. After all, Fitzgerald was writing a novel, not a screenplay, and some of the scenes don't transfer as powerfully to film.
For example, at the end Nick tells Gatsby, "They're a rotten crowd...You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." This is an important and powerful moment in the book, but it appears stiff and strange in the movie.
The acting performances were tremendous. Rudd was perfect as Nick. When I first saw Toby Stephens, he didn't strike me as a good fit for Gatsby, but he had won me over by the end of the movie.
The DVD also comes with an A&E bio on F. Scott Fitzgerald.