Monday, June 3, 2013

Old Sport




Two weeks back I went to catch The Great Gatsby in the theatre... and I would say it's one of the better, if not best, book to film adaptations! I loved the movie exceedingly! The vivid colour, fashion, videography & the story told from Nick Carraway's (played by Tobey Maguire) point of view, were all really well done and well-arranged. 

I would say the side story where Tom Buchanan cheats on his wife with Myrtle Wilson was well-developed in the show, and those scenes were very seamlessly sewn into the story without confusing the main plot. Of course, eventually, the side story meets the main story towards the end, where Daisy murders Myrtle by accident (with Jay Gatsby's car).

To be honest, when I read this book a few months ago, I hated it. It frustrated me. I'm generally the kind of person who picks up a book and has to finish reading the book regardless of how much I detest it. So, this is a book I finished, but not happily. I remember very clearly, throwing down the book after reading the last page, and saying "This book was an utter waste of my emotion." Haha. For one, I was particularly affected by the themes of the book, the lavish lifestyles, and the decadence. Not to mention, the nice guy died in the end, and no one went to his funeral? Come on! No matter how nasty one person is, people still go to his funeral when he dies, so this was completely awful to stomach. But I did like the story in its totality, for it made me think about the themes much more than any other book - which basically means it is a real gem of a book. Haha. 

Perfect actors & actresses. Leonardo DiCaprio & Tobey Maguire did especially well. (I really hated Spiderman because of Tobey Maguire, but well, he was a perfect Nick Carraway.) 

All in all, this movie was really excellently done. The soundtrack was a real bonus. The tunes definitely complimented the modern take movie produced by Baz Luhrmann. Of course the techno music (a.k.a. modern dance music) was quite funny to hear initially, but I can see that it was deliberately made that way, and somehow after a while, the scenes and the dance music really fit.

There, I end with my favourite quote from the book:

“I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

No comments:

Post a Comment