The Great Gatsby

Start with a book considered to be one of the best American novels ever.   Try and make a great movie.  Use all resources necessary.  Don't screw it up.

With that criteria, the 2013 version of the Great Gatsby is a success.  Thanks in part to the resources throw at it:  Leonard Di Caprio as the leading man, Jay Z as executive producer, Industrial Light & Magic for the CGI.  I can hear the studio exec:  This better be good....

Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway, the young stuggling bond salesman, who leases a house for the summer next to the mysterious Gatsby in West Egg.  No one has seen Gatsby, but he does throw a heck of a party.  When the reveal comes, the two match up and Gatsby of course reveals his interest in Daisy Buchanan (Tom's cousin) who lives right across the bay in East Egg.

Suffice to say, I shouldn't have to tell the entire story:  read the Cliff Notes.  The visual aspects makes the movie come alive.  The party scenes look like they were choreographed by Cirque du Soleil.  With a bit of hip-hop thrown in.  The CGI comes through in the dreamy scenes of the beacon across the bay and the driving fast back and forth to New York.  The "valley of ashes" is nearly comical with the soot-faced denizens but it works in CGI.

In the spirit of "don't screw it up" there are many passage narrated straight out of the book, which is what should happen.  No need to reinvent the Great American Novel, Old Sport.

Like the book it is a somewhat sad story.  One thing not included is my favorite part:  Gatsby's unfinished To-Do list.

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