Review: Just What Makes 'Gatsby' So Great?

What was it that made Gatsby great?
This question has been the subject of so many book reports, essays, term papers and treatises that anyone who graduated high school or college must get sweaty palms as soon as the topic is raised.
The Great Gatsby has been called the Great American Novel. Why? Because it's thoroughly American; it's grandly romantic; it resonates from decade to decade; it's just crazy enough to be true and the author's prose is astoundingly beautiful even though he retains an uncanny knack for capturing everyday language.
Yes, F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece is a book like no other -- a book about power, money, class consciousness, success, image, reputation, romance, competition, greed, obsession, love and hate. It's one helluva read. And you'll find parallels in it to the 1960s, the 1980s and the tabloid era that we seem to be stuck in right now.
But how to turn Gatsby into a movie? That's been the illusive challenge ever since 1925 when Gatsby hit bookstores. Over the years, three attempts (two movies and a TV version) have failed.
Now along comes Australian director/screenwriter Baz Luhrmann's adaption starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton.
And Luhrmann who gave us the flamboyant spectacles of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge does the simplest and most audacious thing imaginable: He lets the book lead.
This is a true narrative, superbly recalled by Maguire as the endearing Nick Carraway. And as Maguire narrates (often with the actual words from the book pouring off the screen) the story comes to life, word by word, line by line, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. It's all virtually seamless. And it's not only a stunning visual feast (you'd expect as much from Luhrmann) but it's a compelling, intelligent story of mystery and intrigue. And like all great sagas, it's epic and intimate at the same time.
Lurhmann largely accomplishes this by making Carraway the author of the book -- an alcoholic, mentally-troubled author who checks into a sanitarium and undertakes the story of Gatsby as his therapy.
Tobey Maguire is superb as Nick -- the go-between, the best friend, the ultimate observer. He's the out-of-towner thrust into a world he only dreamed about. Before he even realizes it, he's swirling in a virtual votex and it's too late for him to escape.
As Daisy Buchanan, Carrie Mulligan is seductive and sympathetic one moment and sad-eyed and self-centered the next. Beautiful! She's the best Daisy yet.
Joel Edgerton is appropriately temperamental, reckless and ultimately evil as Daisy's husband, Tom Buchanan.
And then there's Jay Gatsby.
Here, Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his greatest performances: Thoughtful, vulnerable, sensitive. He portrays a man caught up in something he cannot control and he does it with great maturity and restraint. DiCaprio doesn't even appear until a half-hour into the movie but once he does, Nick and the audience are irrevocably tied to his story, his persona, his machinations and his destiny.
The scenes with Nick and Gatsby, Daisy and Gatsby and with all three of them together are mesmerizing. At the core is Nick, who simply cannot help himself let alone Daisy or Jay.
This is a big movie -- a long, story-centered movie that unfolds in its own time. It's reminiscent of and pays homage to the great movies of another era, most notably Citizen Kane. Like the movie moguls and  legendary studios that put Hollywood on the map, Lurhmann understands that stars are important but it's the movies that make the stars and it's the stories that make the movies.
This is a magnificent story.
This is a significant movie.
Finally, someone got Gatsby right.