The Great Gatsby: Movie Review

      F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterspiece, The Great Gatsby, explores the corrosive forces of wealth, the effects of fast cars and even faster women, and is both, in a sense, a condemnation of the era, and a glorification of it.  The film, although not expected to obtain the full eloquence of Fitzgerald's novel, I thought, may have captured the look of the novel, but lacked the spirit of it.
      The actor that played the part of Jay Gatsby fully looks the part, but presents Gatsby's mysteriousness more so as aloofness and a general lack of interest in the world around him.  His elaborate costuming somewhat takes away from the power of his words.  Daisy also, may have been ill-chosen, as in the book she is a naturally beatiful, flirtatious woman that has been known to drive men wild throughout her life.  However, in the movie, her disposition comes across as more nervous than anything, and the audience is left wondering if she is worth men's desperate desire for her affections.  Tom, Daisy's husband, is not nearly as menacing in the film as portrayed in the book either.  Nick Carroway, the protagonist and narrator, is somewhat better portrayed.  His speeches remained  compelling, to an extent, and watching his eyes through the film, they become sadder and sadder as Gatsby nears his tragic fate.  The loss of innocence and disillusionment in the film fare somewhat better as well, and the elusiveness of happiness can fairly easily be inferred from the movie as well.
      Some of the novel's imagery cannot properly be captured by scenery, but must be described in words, such as the excerpt: "Men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."  The loss of the use of phrases such as these takes away from the lyrical grace of the novel as well.
        The film adequately deals with the look of the novel, but generally lacks some of its essence, perhaps even more so than what is expected in the filming of a novel.