The
Great Gatsby (2013 film)
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Tobey Maguire
Carey Mulligan
Joel Edgerton
Isla Fisher
Elizabeth Debicki
Jason Clarke
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Genres:Fantasy | Drama
Synopsis:
The Great Gatsby shows us the life and times of
millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick, who recounts his encounter with
Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties. The film was released on May 10,
2013.
Review:
Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to
New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a
house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area
populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to
have established social connections and who are prone to garish displays of
wealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay
Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties
every Saturday night.
Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he
was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area
of Long Island home to the established upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg
one evening for dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom,
an erstwhile classmate of Nick’s at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to
Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic
relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan
tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of
ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not
long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle.
At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for the affair, Myrtle
begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose.
As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an
invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at
the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects
an English accent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.”
Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns
more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in
Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights
staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his
mansion. Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt
to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself
and Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that
he still loves her. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without
telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion,
Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin
an affair.
After a short time, Tom grows increasingly
suspicious of his wife’s relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the
Buchanans’ house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom
realizes Gatsby is in love with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an
extramarital affair, he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could
be unfaithful to him. He forces the group to drive into New York City, where he
confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom asserts that he and Daisy
have a history that Gatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife
that Gatsby is a criminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other
illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom
contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that
Gatsby cannot hurt him.
When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley
of ashes, however, they discover that Gatsby’s car has struck and killed
Myrtle, Tom’s lover. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from
Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby
intends to take the blame. The next day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George,
that Gatsby was the driver of the car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that
the driver of the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby
in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots himself.
Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his
relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust
he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and
moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that
just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the
American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere
pursuit of wealth. Though
Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,”
Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby’s dream and the American
dream—is over.
As for the performance
of the actors it was brilliant! Leonardo DiCaprio was
the best of the best. He is great at portraying every possible human feelings
and emotions. He is a great master of his craft.
To sum it up, I'd like to say that my overall
impression is positive. While watching this movie, I enjoyed music and the
atmosphere of that time. Good upbringing and proper manners of the main
characters made me to dive into that American dream.
