I finished reading The Great Gatsby yesterday afternoon, so I finished watching the movie this morning. The book impressed me. I wondered what the hell I had gotten out of it in high school, since I didn't remember much. This time it had me laughing and thinking. It made me think about college, and how in the hell you're supposed to read a book once and be able to have something interesting to say about it. I got the sense that there were all kinds of things to notice, and while I did notice some, I felt I was missing thoughts that I would probably have if I read the book again. This is a book to taste rather than gobble- lines that needed to be examined and chewed on. I try to keep my library at a manageable number with just the books that I think I will read again, and this one will stay. I have another Fitzgerald on my reading shelf, and I am looking forward to that.
But the movie... felt... too glossy for traction. I didn't mind the modern music- I think that was an attempt to make it relevant. It just didn't seem to have a bite. I got the sense that the actors knew what weight they were carrying, and tried to convey that into perfect, intangible scenes, but I wasn't feeling it. I liked Carey Mulligan better than anyone else, but I disagreed with a lot of the interpretation of the pacing and the lines. See, this is why it's a bad idea to turn a book like this into a movie. I can see Robert Redford a lot easier as Gatsby- he seems to have that smile that Nick describes, along with the calm style that I picture Gatsby with. And maybe Leo seems wrong because I know him in younger roles, but I like him better when he is angry and emotional, and that's not how I read Gatsby. I didn't think he did a
bad job, I think he had an impossible job. He did his own thing with it that I felt was pretty successful, especially in certain moments like after he threw the shirts down. But what was this frantic driving and losing his shit in the hotel room? Gatsby loses Daisy right there, but I didn't get the sense from reading that argument that Gatsby starts acting like some brute. And Myrtle? She was a bit extreme and her husband somehow beefed up on his way from the book. Not that they really followed the book, anyway.
I found myself thinking, "I thought Baz Luhrmann directed this." Oh, he did. Well, I got that from the party scenes, but not the rest of the movie. Moulin Rouge lent itself to that kind of spastic weird fun- did he go for this movie for the party scenes? I wasn't expecting it to be the best thing ever, and I hear that the Redford version isn't that great, either. Maybe that's because it feels impossible to recreate the feelings created by the book, which I would say are sadness, a little confusion, and a lot of wistfulness. How do you show that in a movie without overdoing it? And oh, by the way, as it's mentioned about 45 times in the book, Jordan is TAN. She's a golfer, for crying out loud.
If the book has an intentionally indescribable quality, how can you describe it? I wondered what people could have possibly made of this crazy movie without reading the book. Weird. But now that's out of my system and I can move on to another movie.
Riley is snoring under my desk after spending over two hours working on a Bento ball treat. I've never seen her so aggravated over a toy, and she really wore herself out. I'm going to let her nap a bit while I run to the store for some ingredients. I'll be cooking tonight, after all my chores are done. Might as well let her rest up before she has to chase and bark at the vacuum cleaner.
