El Gran Gatsby [Blu-ray] [Spain Import]

Hard to believe Fitzgerald could be so badly done. The talented Mira Sorvino is miscast. Hairstyles are modernized right out of the period in which this story takes place. Robert Evans production with Redfield/Farrow was much superior. He was able to mostly stick to the original dialogue and that production had an other-worldly look about it that this new one lacks. In short, it really stinks.

Toby Stephens is very good in the role of Gatsby. Most of the other acting is pretty plain when contrasted with the characters in the book.

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The movie played out just much like the book. I enjoyed that. Really the only difference was how they began with showing Gatsby getting killed, which I thought was good. It really gave a dramatic feel to the film. It assumed we had read the book before and gave a more dramatic mood. Nicks character was played perfectly, it could not have been done much better. His role was played perfectly, he always seemed a little bit confused yet, at the same time had a sence of what is going on and could see through all the phonies the movie presents. Gatsby also was done well I think overall in this movie. It would be hard to find someone that could pull off all of Gatsbys grins and comments. This was done well though. The movie was very acurate to the book I believed. The production was well done and the costumes were very accurate. It definetly gave the feel of the time period. I especially like the performance by daisy. Still who ever cast the daughter must have had some sort of eye problems or something. Im sorry but, that is probaly the only thing wrong with this movie. Overall this film is very good and I give it my full review.

I have grown old, and I have loved Robert Redford in the role of Gatsby for years, but Toby Stephens (who is the actress Maggie Smiths son, by the way) is a close second in my opinion. Mira Sorvino may not have been the best choice for the part, but Paul Rudd puts forth an admirable performance. If you like Stephens in this role, check him out in Masterpiece Theaters Jane Eyre as Mr. Rochester. In both Jane Eyre and in this one, a person cannot remove their eyes from him. He dominates the screen.

Haven seen 6 movies of The Great Gatsby this one was o.k., lovely costumes, but not quite like the book.

The movie opens with the death of Gatsby and the falling of the precious cufflinks to the bottom of the swimming pool. About five years ago Gatsby loved and wanted to marry Daisy, but couldnt because he was too poor. Finally he has earned enough money, but Daisy is already married. The Great Gatsby is the story of upper-class society in the 1920s and the interactions between a group of people. Nick, played by Paul Rudd, was what I expected Nick to be like when I read the book. He was short which I think was supposed to show his unassertiveness and also he just looked controlled and exactly like the character I had read about before. Gatsby was played by Toby Stephens, who did a good job. The only thing I didnt like about his performance was that he reminded me of a really sleazy guy. When his smile turned to the side, he looked like he was trying to sell you a car or something. Overall I thought the cast was well chosen except for Gatsby because he seemed like a jerk. The movie seemed very accurate to book (themes, characters, symbolism, plot). It was really neat that when the two cars reached the setting of Myrtles house that it was all dark and gray and colorless. This was a change from the bright colors the rich and symbolized the difference between the two classes. Another similarity involved the mood of the scenes. Most of them seemed to fit very well, like when Daisy cried over the shirts and was like a little kid touching all of Gatsbys possessions. This scene is supposed to give a feeling of materialism, and its done very well. A major difference between the book and this movie is that at the begging of the movie it shows Gatsby being shot in his pool. I think the purpose of this was to get the movie of to a faster start before the introduction of the characters. One major problem with the movie was that it switched narrators about half way through. Instead of being from the perspective of Nick, it switched to Gatsby and Daisys perspective during their affair. This is a little confusing because in the book Nick is informed about their relationship from other people, and that information is changed depending on whos telling it. By changing this part in the movie, it takes away a certain character development that is given through the way they talk to others. An aspect of the movie that really impressed me was the camera movement towards the end. Although seemingly insignificant, this detail can create different feelings depending on the quickness of the movement or how much waiting time is allowed. After Gatsby is shot the camera goes from his body to his killer, Wilson, to the police officer, to Nick, and finally to the sky. This sweeping movement gives the viewer a new piece of information every time it moves. Also, the scene was relatively calm and relaxed, as the event was an inevitable conclusion. I really liked the music of this movie. It seemed to enhance each scene by making some of them more dramatic or warning the viewer when something bad is about to happen. Thats a quality that a movie can have that a book cant, it can use sound and visuals to bring the plot to a different level. Overall the Great Gatsby was a well-adapted movie of a book and used the extra senses to create feelings that werent apparent before. The directors knowledge of the themes, moods and characters was obvious through the careful presentation and flowing scenes. One area in which this movie could have been better was some of the details like nicks perspective seemed a little different or untrue to the book.

True to the story in the book, but the acting leaves a lot to be desired.

This somewhat modest TV adaptation is the best of the modern Gatsby films. For one thing, the casting is perfect--Toby Stephens embodies to the nth the mixture of thug and sweetheart that is Gatsby, Paul Rudd delivers the most nuanced of all Nicks (though he is unflatteringly costumed in a ridiculous hat over a three-piece suit, which might be true to the period but just looks clunky), and Martin Donovan is wonderfully hateful as Tom. Francie Swift is a great Jordan, too, but the role is easy to play, I must admit. As for Daisy, Mira Sorvino is fine without suggesting the mystically magical being that so captures Gatsbys soul--but then this role is hard to play. Very, very hard. All the location work is fine, right down to the all-important Valley of Ashes with the sign of the optometrists glasses. The Gatsby parties are not as vast as in the recent Di Caprio version, but they really were way over the top. This version seems more faithful to the book, to the times...a real achievement.

Although this film looks beautiful and has some great moments (and Paul Rudd is very good as Nick Carroway), the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version, despite a few cringe-worthy moments, is superior to this one and a better choice for students who want an insight into F. Scott Fitzgeralds amazing novel. I dont think the wonderful British actor Toby Stephens was miscast as Gatsby, as many other reviewers here have stated, so much as mis-directed. Stephens gruff American accent and informal diction (although thats the writers fault) directly contradicts Fitzgeralds insistence that Gatsby spoke with a gentlemanly formality just short of absurd. Given Fitzgeralds instructions, and the fact that the events took place in 1922, Stephens accent should have been pitched much more mid-Atlantic. He plays Gatsby as a more shallow, thuggish man than Fitzgerald presents him, almost completely without the American-dream romantic longing that makes him fascinating and sympathetic. Stephens is more than capable of acting several contradictory aspects of this character at once, but the director chose to focus on the shallow bootlegger at the expense of the pining lover. Redfords performance gives a more tragic insight into Gatsbys Alger-esque illusions and the pain they cause him -- although he could have used some of Toby Stephens menace. BTW, Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the Redford/Farrow version, had good cause to sue the producers of this one, who lifted a great deal of his script and staging almost word-for-word.