Great Gatsby, The (8/27/2013)

Rated PG-13 for some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton

Dreiected by Baz Luhrmann (Australia, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet)

The Great Gatsby really isn’t that Great.

The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Remember in High School when we had to read “The Great Gatsby”? Do you remember hating it? Well, watching this movie is even worse!

Film critic Tom Charity says of Director Baz Luhrmann, “His movies, including “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” are like watching a three-ring circus. They revel in surface, spectacle and sensory overload. They’re audaciously, passionately artificial and at the same time unabashedly romantic — post-modern pop medleys aimed at the heart, not the brain.” Well Tom I completely agree and The Great Gatsby certainly fits the criteria.

As you may recall from the Cliff’s Notes (let’s be honest), one of the purposes of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel was to underscore the emptiness of the excessive, hedonistic lifestyle embraced by some of the wealthy during the 1920’s. We clearly see how empty, lonely and pointless it all is. Seems Hollywood hasn’t quiet learned that lesson yet.

No one would argue that the film looks good. The problem comes when you start thinking the story and the characters are just excuses for Luhrmann to express his visual flare. Because the story and the characters are anything but excuses.

Although this film is visually stunning the messages about sex, greed and friendship are dangerous and disturbing. It’s a “Coaster.”

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
The language in this PG-13 film is on the mild side. But the messages about sex, greed and friendship are dangerous and disturbing.

There is no nudity, but there are some very skimpy outfits. One women is seen wearing a net around her body and little spiders to cover her nipples. This is a very brief scene.

There are a couple of scenes where sex is either implied, but there is no nudity or graphic sex scenes.

CONVERSATION STARTER

1. How would you describe the behavior we see in The Great Gatsby?


2. What would your life look like if you had his kind of wealth?


3. Read Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
   
   I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.


4. How does that verse compare/contrast to the life of The Great Gatsby?


5. What can we learn from this passage?