Reviews for this film from our members:
- Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: La nuova versione, realizzata dall’australiano Baz Luhrmann (Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge) ha già attirato molte critiche negative negli Stati Uniti, come sempre avviene quando un testo sacro della letteratura o del teatro viene adattato con grande libertà formale e narrativa, come in questo caso.
- Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
- Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I think this is the best adaptation of The Great Gatsby yet. (Not the best possible version) just good enough and the others are weaker compared to this version.
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: Truth be told, this may well be the best Gatsby adaptation we’ve yet had. But that’s rather a low bar, and the fact that a film with this many problems is still at the top of the heap speaks volumes about the trouble with making a good Gatsby movie.
- Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
- Excerpt: The Great Gatsby might just be Luhrmann’s best film to date and he makes a better case for adapting the novel than expected, but as many viewers will likely hate it as love it and are sure to let you know.
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: It’s really not possible to retrofit a soaring romance onto Fitzgerald’s plot skeleton.
- Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
- Enrique Buchichio @ Cartelera.com.uy
- Excerpt: La formulación es casi idéntica a la de las películas más reconocibles del director, en especial Moulin Rouge, con la diferencia de que en El gran Gatsby el despliegue visual satura al espectador demasiado pronto.
- Daniel Carlson @ Pajiba
- Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: The glue the holds the picture together is the presentation that Lurhmann delivers. Like “Moulin Rouge!,” “The Great Gatsby” has some awesome imagery and a pulse-pounding soundtrack.
- Stephen Carty @ Flix Capacitor
- Bob Cashill @ Popdose.com
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …director Baz Luhrmann wants to dazzle you with razzle, make you swoon over the gauzy glory of paperbook romance and hit you over the head with Fitzgerald’s symbols if not his themes…It’s a shame, really, as Leonardo DiCaprio is a great Gatsby.
- Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: …it’s Lurhmann’s literal-minded fidelity to the novel—his insistence on emphasizing Fitzgerald’s words when imagery would be sufficient—that sinks THE GREAT GATSBY.
- Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: El gran Gatsby tiene una primera parte muy floja, porque no sabes muy bien qué te quieren contar (eso ya le pasaba a la novela), y una segunda parte mucho mejor, con grandes escenas en las que Luhrmann logra una emoción que Fitzgerald ni siquiera rozó.
- Jim Dixon @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: Great literature seldom makes great movies, and Baz Luhrmann’s new, 3D remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” only serves to prove the point. In any event, Luhrmann, who’s madly in love with his own status as a visionary, was absolutely the wrong director to try. This adaptation of a major classic forgot to take its Ritalin.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: This is Fitzgerald as seen through the eyes of a gossip columnist.
- Kate Erbland @ Film School Rejects
- Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Baz Luhrmann is a genius visualist who creates images and milieus that reach directly into our unconscious and pull all sorts of mythic triggers that help us grapple with the larger implications of this love story.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: A sumptuous, exquisitely gaudy spectacle, emphasizing style over substance and filled with extravagant parties to which we wish we’d been invited.
- Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
- Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Hasn’t a dull moment on that marvelously shiny surface, but underneath, it lacks palpable feeling and power like it should.
- Oktay Ege Kozak @ Oregon Herald
- Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
- Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
- Excerpt: The Great Gatsby hews very close to the Luhrmann playbook, but does so without damaging the source material.
- Joe Lozito @ Big Picture Big Sound
- Excerpt: Baz Luhrmann’s delicious visuals struggle to enliven a fairly standard retelling of the Fitzgerald classic.
- Peter Martin @ Dallas Film Now
- Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Brent McKnight @ Beyond Hollywood
- Ryan McNeil @ The Matinee
- Excerpt: Baz Luhrmann struggles to adapt The Great American novel, but comes through when it comes time to adapt the pages that matter most.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: Not so great, eh?
- R. Kurt Osenlund @ Slant Magazine
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: The kinetic, hyper-stylized conveyance of ideas and emotions – vapid as the style may be – is a perfect match for the thematic undercurrent of the source material.
- James Plath @ Family Home Theater
- Excerpt: If your children are of high school age, Baz Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby is a worthwhile film to watch together.
- Tiago Ramos @ Split Screen [Portuguese]
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: If nothing else, one should have expected Luhrmann’s Gatsby to be a zippy visual extravaganza, rendering Jay Gatsby’s epic parties and decadent displays with virtuoso indulgence. Such is not the case.
- Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Baz Luhrmann’s movie rendering of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel is The Great Gatsby the way Jay Gatsby might have directed it.
- Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Gatsby’s good, but not great
- Marcio Sallem @ Em Cartaz [Portuguese]
- Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: The Great Gatsby is hiding a secret, concealed and lost by a wide-eyed director more interested in visual style than emotional depth.
- [New – 12/12] | Don Simpson @ Smells Like Screen Spirit
- Excerpt: The infinite levels of hyperactive falseness do not bode well for the dialogue and plot, which are mere afterthoughts for a man of style-over-substance such as Luhrmann.
- Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Luhrmann and DiCaprio bring it vividly to life, even if not in quite the fashion Fitzgerald intended.
- Andrew Wyatt @ Look/Listen (St. Louis Magazine)
- Excerpt: This is a C+ high school essay on “The Themes and Symbols of The Great Gatsby,” gussied up with a rhinestone cover.
