The Great Gastby

It has been one of the highest anticipated films of this year, and last night I finally had the joy of seeing it! I had read a mixed bag of reviews so I didn’t quite know what to expect...but my god did it not blow my socks off! I loved it! (And my crush on Leonardo DiCaprio is now out of control!!)

To give you a brief overview, The Great Gatsby was written by the late F. Scott Fitzgerald, and is a romantic drama set in the 1920’s. It follows the lives of Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchannan and of course Jay Gatsby, a multi millionaire who nobody seems to know much about. It is a story of love, hope and the pursuit of the American dream, all of which subsequently results in devastation. Ultimately, the story centres around Gatsby and Daisy, and his quest to reignite a flame they once shared. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, I won’t say more. All I will say is, get up, go the cinema and see it right now!! You won’t regret it!

So where to even start...? I fell in love with this story whilst studying the novel at school. This definitely helped me in going to see the film as I am someone who likes to know what’s going on in a film! I like to know what’s coming next... stupid I know, but hey that’s me!

One of key elements of this story is the over the top parties that Gatsby holds at his incredible mansion, and the party scenes in the film really are incredible! If only I knew someone who hosted parties like that...  Some have said that the parties are too over the top, but I remember reading the book and imagining the parties exactly how they are portrayed in the film! After all, Gatsby is meant to be an over the top character, and I feel that this aspect of the film is really necessary in order to capture the extent that Gatsby is willing to go to win over Daisy.

The film captures the essence of the 1920’s perfectly, an era filled with amazing music and out of this world fashion! The dresses in the film are to die for, and my goodness to the actresses make them look fabulous!! That brings me to the star studded cast...and my goodness do they do a great job! Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire are just a few of the famous faces that pop up, with Leonardo really looking better than ever!!

Now don’t even get me started on the soundtrack to this film. Oh my goodness it is incredible! It is without a doubt the best soundtrack I have heard for a film in a while, and boy does it make you want to go to New York!! Just go and see this film, and see how you feel when the camera spans over New York City in the opening scenes! Just Wow! A number of people have criticised director Baz Luhrmanns choice to use such modern music, such as rap by Jay Z, but I personally feel that this decision really brought this film into the modern age. After all, this is a remake of a classic for modern times, so why wouldn’t you spice up the music?

So there you have it. No matter what others are saying, I think that Luhrmann did a truly fabulous job with this film, and I would happily go and see it again tomorrow!

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back carelessly into the past.”