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May 16th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, says our own Charles Miranda. Picture: AP Photo/Warner Bros.
Source: AP
Luhrmann’s Gatsby is crass, vulgar, garish and brilliant, Miranda writes. Picture: AP Photo/Warner Bros.
Source: AP
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IT’S crass, it’s vulgar, it’s garish – it’s brilliant. Baz Luhmann has given The Great Gatsby a 21st Century makeover, melding all the tasteless opulence of the time with an over-the-top modern makeover that goes beyond just rapper Jay-Z’s well placed hip hop beats.
Like Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, Luhmann has again told a torrid tale of love lost, with one eye set on the past and the other on the future.
Let’s be very clear.
This is not an adaptation of the classic F Scott Fitzgerald literary landmark, but rather a big budget blockbuster in 3D that will no doubt be a success particularly with younger audiences.
The central plot follows the general theme of the Fitzgerald story, in no small part due to a narration by character Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and there’s the same fallen hero Jay Gatsby cast and portrayed brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio and tonnes of all the glamour and glitz of the roaring 20s pre-crash.
KERR GIVES GREAT GATSBY A BIG THUMBS UP
But then the scenes and themes become trademark Luhrmann, fantastical, stylised and elaborate in a way that I simply found intoxicating.
GATSBY HELPS BOOST EDGERTON’S PROFILE
The flick has received mixed reviews in the US but that’s more probably since they cling to their home-grown literary greats and there was no big explosions, few spangled Stars and Stripes or a happy ending that their audiences oft demand.
GATSBY GETS GALA OPENING AT CANNES
No, I liked it. It won’t be a classic. But you go to the movies to be absorbed and entertained and visually stimulated and this ticks all those boxes.
Verdict 3.5/5
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