If you think Leonardo Di Caprio looks good in the Great Gatsby, what did you think of him in his earlier Baz Luhrman Production “Romeo + Juliet”?
If you thought 1920s New York looked pretty, what did you make of Verona Beach?
I am among the haters when it comes to Lurhman’s take on “Gatsby” and so I went back to his 1996 “Romeo + Juliet”, the movie it most resembles and there is a reason it doesn’t stand up to R&J -it is a facsimile for the middle age after a love story for teens.
“R&J” is all disco and bright colors, everything explodes in your face and moving to the story to present day LA works from one end to the other. It is clever. But “Gatsby” isn’t clever, it is dated and a hole and the leads, DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan are not in the same league as Di Caprio and Claire Danes. I didn’t believe for one second in Gatsbys love for Daisy, but I believe in Rome and Juliet. The two stars look like mirror images of glorious youth. Danes eyes jump out at you with affection and interest and just the joy of new romance at the Capulet Ball and Leo’s puppy love adorability. It is magical. Meanwhile the first big party at Gatsby has Tobey Maguire in the Clare Danes role. Is it worth mentioning that it doesn’t much work. It looks spectacular but it has no heart, old sport.
Both movies are tragedies but both movies are not tragic. The twin suicides that end the families feuding has the power of myth but Gatsby senseless death has the power of nothing. Leo, who looks bloated and cynical in what is meant to be the story of a great American optimist, isn’t right for the role. Neither was Robert Redford. But Leo as Romeo was the equal of Leonard Whiting’s Romeo 20 years before. They were both children becoming men, they were both fortunes fool, whereas Gatsby was first a cipher and then just a fool out of his class.
Nothing can save Lurhman’s “Gatsby” and nothing, not even the severe truncating of the play, can his “Romeo”. Musically, it is a stand off, but what the music signifies? No contest. The version of “Young Hearts Run Free” with Mercutio singing is worth the entire Jay-Z soundtrack.
The Great Gatsby – C-
Romeo + Juliet – B+