Shit's about to get nitpicky...
- First thought when the music started going: Oh shit, it's gonna be one of these kinda movies... After several viewings, I dig the musical selections ("No Church in the Wild", "Love is Blindness"). They don't fit with the time period of course, but they set the tone. It captures the excitement of the 20s and the anguish and heartache of the characters. And, of course the presence of Jack White, the patron saint of this blog, helps score points... for me at least.
- The movie looks great as expected. The party looks lavish and otherworldy. The costumes and cinematography are amazing. Baz Luhrmann does this extremely well.
- I like the logo at the end... which I'm assuming is supposed to be a door? Maybe a gate?
The strength of the performances are hard to tell, but...
- Wowsers, Tobey Maguire sounds bland...
- The chick who plays Jordan Baker (the tall brunette with Tobey Maguire)... Did they cast her for her height? More bland delivery.
- Carey Mulligan looks the part, and she's frickin' adorable... but she seems a bit lifeless, too. It's almost like Luhrmann got the memo to tone it done, but he went too far. Daisy is supposed to be flighty and bubbly.
- DiCaprio doesn't have the smile. What smile? The Gatsby smile...
"He smiled understandingly — much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced — or seemed to face — the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."
- I'm not a fan of how shaky Gatsby's voice is. It's okay in the reunion at the window scene... but everything else lacks conviction. Gatsby had conviction until the end.
- The butler gave the best performance in this trailer... The butler did it!
- The scene with Tobey Maguire in the rain or sprinkler or whatever? What the fuck is that? Also, I don't remember at any point in the book does Nick Caraway lose his shit and go, "Get the hell out of here!"
- Joel Edgerton looks too much like Hitler...
The trailer did what it was supposed to do. It created buzz and interest. It's a visually gorgeous movie, and it seems as though the performances don't go to that parody level that the other Bazz Luhrman films go to. I'm still in.
No comments:
Post a Comment