The Great Gatsby

— I finally saw Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”, a retelling of Fitzgerald’s novel on cocaine. That’s not to say it’s without redemption. DiCaprio’s really very good and the costumes and sets are a wonder. Carey Mulligan passes as Daisy and Toby Maguire is a fairly decent Nick Carraway. The story’s there too, but you are constantly aware of Luhermann’s hand in it all, and it’s not a very subtle hand. I tried to cope with the music, with Jay-Z and Q-Tip and will.i.am in the flapper age, but really! It’s worth seeing, but there are several other films worth seeing first. Thank god I didn’t go to the 3-D version—there’s excess and then there’s just plain excessive!

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[2013. 143 min. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Macguire, Carey Mulligan, and Joel Edgerton.]
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2013/05/13/130513crci_cinema_denby