The Great Gatsby
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Movie Reviews of The Great Gatsby
Movie Review: He's no Robert Redford
Summary: 2 Stars
After reading the novel The Great Gatsby for school I went out and rented the 1974 version of the movie. I absolutely adored it. It showed the characters personalities as they were in the book. After that we watched the 2001 version in school and I found it to be almost unbearable. The acting was poor exspecially on the part of Toby Stephens (Gatsby). He seemed like more of a mix of Joey from friends and Boy George than a love struck man. While the hit and run scene did prove to be rather entertaining, over all I feel that this movie is just a waste of time and you would be much better off watching the 1974 version.Movie Review: Dull
Summary: 2 Stars
Almost none of the glamor of the Jazz Age is captured in this lukewarm adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Miro Sorvino is a fine actress, but she's terribly miscast as Daisy Fay Buchanan in this mediocre offering from A&E. The Redford/Farrow version is superior by far.Movie Review: Gatsby: Good not great
Summary: 2 Stars
This film was beautiful to watch but I must say I was not impressed with the story; Toby Stephens and Mira Sorvino are excellent actors but I was not satisfied with how this was pieced together. I would rent this -- not buy it.Movie Review: the best version was with alan ladd.nothing since has come near
Summary: 2 Stars
each time a new version arrives i think back to alan ladd who was perfect
as the great gatsby what on earth has happened to that film
Movie Review: intriguing failure
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a fascinating example of how a movie adaptation can be almost excessively faithful to a book -- transcribing dialogue line for line, including voice-over narration -- and still get the details and nuances almost entirely wrong. The diversity of the novel's social world has been completely flattened out: everybody talks the same, regardless of whether they're from Kentucky, Minneapolis, Chicago, or Queens. Daisy's voice is flat and whiny, with no enticing lilt and sparkle. The costumes are frumpy, especially Daisy's -- Mira Sorvino has been beautiful and sexy in other roles, but in this one she looks like a gawky teenager wearing shapeless cotton dresses and giant unflattering hats. (In the flashbacks, she looks like Rachel on Friends!) The relative ages are all messed up... Tom (30) is supposed to be significantly older than Daisy (23), and Tom's mistress Myrtle is supposed to be significantly older than he is (in her mid-30s).
One thing that bothered me is that the film softened Tom's character significantly. Admittedly, Martin Donovan is a great actor who probably couldn't help making his character sympathetic and nuanced. But the whole plot turns on Tom being an "alpha male," physically domineering and harsh - competitive and contemptuous with men, and instinctively controlling with women. Donovan gets the contempt, but he's too slim and articulate, and he lacks "hulking brute" sex appeal, and he's much too affectionate/respectful with women. I couldn't believe he APOLOGIZED to Myrtle after bloodying her nose -- in the book he deliberately BREAKS her nose (with one blow of his hand) as a punishment for talking back, and then ignores her wails of pain and everyone else freaking out. It's a grim scene and should show his callousness and controlling nature. Instead the movie makes it a twisted love scene, with him striking out, then apologizing, saying he didn't mean it and kissing her. Absurd.
The movie also makes a misguided attempt to turn Daisy - shallow, "careless," reckless, life-wrecking Daisy - into a sympathetic heroine. It sets up a parallel between Gatsby's 5-year longing and Daisy's... makes it look like she has been missing him and pining for him all through her marriage. But in the book, unhappiness has made her "sophisticated" and cynical, not wistful and mopey. The movie tries to give her a heart and a soul, which turns the whole story into a goopy "star-crossed lovers" Lifetime romance instead of the much darker and more ironic fable in the book.