Let's change it up a bit, shall we?
'Tis the season of the blockbuster, mindless action movies that the Michael Bay fans of the world get off on. I enjoy the hell out of many such films, but I like to think of myself as more eclectic than that. It's been pointed out, though, that my range of taste of films that I actually post about is somewhat limited. Looking back, it's hard to argue that point, so I'll give it a shot reviewing a different type of film. And yeah, The Great Gatsby definitely qualifies as different.
Full disclaimer: I have not read the book. I know it was big in high school English for some, but even if I had read it then I wouldn't have retained anything. I know at some point I read Lord Of The Flies and all I remember is the laughable film version we watched with the hilariously fake rock bouncing off the head of the fat kid. Good times. Anyways, I had no prior knowledge of what the hell I was walking into. Walking out, two things had occurred to me. One, that I was super grateful to have my Mandi there with me to walk and talk me through the damn thing, and two, if I hadn't had her there, there was no chance of me enjoying this film. There is a definite need to have some knowledge of the book or some previous performance thereof in order to appreciate TGG, but even with that knowledge you might not enjoy the film completely (more on that later).
The big sell for getting me to see this film was post-Crisis Leonardo Dicaprio. Had you told me 10 years ago that Leo would be one of my favorite actors working, I'm not sure if I would either laugh hysterically or punch you in the face (probably both). But here we are, and with work like The Departed, Inception, and Django Unchained under his belt, Leo deserves his recognition and continues his great work here. And that's good, because as much as I like Leo, I fucking despise Tobey Maguire. Even if he was the only wrong thing about the Spider Man trilogy (He's not. So much wrong there.), I'd still find them near insufferable. Despite that hatred, he was a good choice for the role he plays as Nick Carraway, a normal shmoe enveloped by Gatsby's world. The performances of Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton were both also noteworthy, if for one specific reason that had to be pointed out to me: these people were not supposed to be liked.
The characters in TGG are, for the most part, horrible people. The film is just jam packed with examples of each person showing various forms of douchebaggery and would have thrown me off had the fact that these displays were meant to do just that not been pointed out. I can see why English classes have a hard-on for this book: anyone could sit back and analyze the behaviour of these assholes all damn day. If I had to throw out a general analysis from what I've seen, it would be that these characters display the true neutrality of a person. How they will change their behaviour in any way necessary to obtain what they want most. Any value, mannerism, knowledge, wealth, whatever is expendable in the face of your deepest desire. A 'fuck these people, I'll do what I want' mentality that really is a huge criticism on the human condition. The problem with TGG is that there is no break from it. It's fucking everywhere, and while it makes the characters more relateable, that relation is in a negative way. Who wants to be reminded that people suck? The only upside is that the focus of the film is on the way upper class, so it turns out that rich people suck just as much as anyone else. Fucking duh.
Is it just me, or does TGG play out a bit like Fight Club? A spoiler-free synopsis might sound like this: A normal, uninteresting guy meets up with a larger-than-life character, who opens up a whole new world to him and changes his life. Hijinks ensue. Throughout the film, I was begging for someone to turn to Tobey and be like 'sir, the first rule about Project Fancy Party is we do not ask questions' or whatever. It would have turned the whole thing around for me because, to be quite honest, not a lot happens in this movie. I imagine that a lot of what makes the book so interesting and such a classic does not translate into film well, and anything that is expressed has probably already been done, and done better. All of the insight on the human condition, all of the allegory and metaphor (holy fuck, is there a lot of it), much better done and more appreciated in literature than a 2 1/2 hour long movie about the killer parties over at Casa de Leo.
Speaking of the allegory in the film, man oh man was it shoved down the audience's collective throat. This is what I was referring to earlier when I said that those who have read the book might not appreciate the film much. You could not go 10 minutes watching the film without hearing being shown something that was an obvious reference to something else, and it began to make my eyes involuntarily roll. I do appreciate methods like this thrown into film of all kinds because it can make you think a little bit. This film doesn't really even give you the chance. It will give you a little allegory, and then go on to beat you over the head with it until you feel like you're looking at the answer page of a crossword book. Hell, they even have one of the characters full out explain what a specific thing represents. Thanks for making it easy, I guess.
The movie was not all bad, though. As I said the performances were very effective. More than that, this film was VERY pretty. I'm only familiar with Bax Luhrmann's work on Romeo+Juliet featuring pre-Crisis Leo, which I enjoyed in a 'guilty pleasure' sort of way, but TGG was very stylized and made the film a lot more interesting and easy to watch. That said, I wouldn't necessarily call it a period piece either, as it would be hard to justify a film set in the 1920's using a soundtrack exclusively featuring Jay-Z, Kanye and their ilk. Again, it made the film interesting, but was definitely out of place at times. I could be wrong though. If AC/DC starts playing in the background of Boardwalk Empire, I guess I'm the asshole.
I'm not saying don't give this movie a shot. There were things I enjoyed, but mostly it's just not my thing. At the very least, it's the turned-up-to-11 version of what my thing would be. There's a lot going on and absolute fuck all going on at the same time. This isn't the cerebral movie I was kind of expecting, and sometimes that's what you're looking for: an easy to follow film with some people who are good at what they just being assholes. Hey, it's what I sit through every time I put on Monday Night Raw.
Knight Owl
No comments:
Post a Comment