Great Gatsby Review

I promised a review of the Great Gatsby movie and here it is. It was amazing. You have to remember of course, that it is a sad story. So expect to be left with a kind of bittersweet feeling. Its the story of unrequited love! Ugh! So painful to watch. But what a great romantic story! I feel like that era was so interesting. Anyone that knows me, knows that I call music from that time, "My Happy Music". So charming and upbeat....The Jay-Z inclusion was a little odd, everyone in the theatre laughed, but ok, whatever. I guess that's cool.
The beginning was very fast paced. Typical of any Baz Luhrmann movie. I remember thinking that of Moulin Rouge the first time I saw it. But it was kind of frustrating in a way, because they rushed through all of the opening scenes, which were incredibly beautiful, but you wanted it to slow down so that you could look at it, and be there. It is almost a shame that they spent that much money creating such detailed environments that just got swiftly swept over by Baz's unique style. But after the first few scenes and the story began to unfold it slowed down and it was really great. It followed the book beautifully and it was great that they had it narrated a little bit so that they could include some of the amazing writing of Fitzgerald.
As far as the actors go, I thought that Leo DiCaprio has reached a point in his career that he was perfect for the part. His age and his experience just helped to make the character very real and very like the Gatsby you read in the book. And on a side note, I think its a crime of Hollywood that he hasn't received an Oscar yet. Really? He has played so many great parts....and people like Jennifer Lawrence has won one? Come on! So dumb. Toby Maguire was ok, they definitely could have casted better, but he wasn't terrible. I think Carey Mulligan had a very hard character to play and I think she did very well. Her face and demeanor was perfect for the part. They may have found someone a little better, but overall, she did very well at playing very real emotions that I'm sure are hard to recreate. I thought that the actress they picked to play Jordan Baker the golf player was not good at all. She is a good actress, but she didn't seem to fit the part. She just didn't quite fit the character that Fitzgerald described.
The Moet champagne newly designed label that was supposed to resemble the age at the time, didn't really look too different from what it looks like now. The monogram for Gatsby was pretty sweet. I think it was a great movie and definitely worth one of our precious date nights! I know I will be watching it again trying to catch those first few moments in the movie where it is rushed, but intriguing.  I loved it. Go see it!