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

I found this adaptation slow moving and, at times, disappointing. I suggest the Redford film and/or the current film with Leo.

Although we wanted the original movie with Redford, this version was very good and we enjoyed it, especially the outstanding acting job by Paul Rudd.

This was actually a fairly faithful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgeralds book. Many of the lines will sound very familiar. Whether or not that faithfulness is a good thing depends on your perspective. After all, Fitzgerald was writing a novel, not a screenplay, and some of the scenes dont transfer as powerfully to film. For example, at the end Nick tells Gatsby, Theyre a rotten crowd...Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together. This is an important and powerful moment in the book, but it appears stiff and strange in the movie. The acting performances were tremendous. Rudd was perfect as Nick. When I first saw Toby Stephens, he didnt strike me as a good fit for Gatsby, but he had won me over by the end of the movie. The DVD also comes with an A&E bio on F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Literature teachers admire this film version of The Great Gatsby because it is more faithful to the novel. However, squeezing the novel into 100 minutes on the DVD leaves much out. The weak script with its flat dialogue misses the morality of the novel and the spirit of the Jazz Age. Toby Stephens as Gatsby, and Mira Sorvino as Daisy, offer mechanical performances, with zero chemistry between them. Martin Donovan, as Daisys wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, comes off as working class brute rather than a blue blood. Paul Rudd as Nick the observer and narrator, is the films main virtue. Otherwise, the direction is almost nonexistent. Leave this film version of The Great Gatsby to the classroom.

Its a paradox that F. Scott Fitzgerald is currently taken much more seriously as a writer in the United Kingdom than he is the United States, where his best novel THE GREAT GATSBY is a much-taught classic, but most frequently at the high school level. (In recent decades hes been taken much more seriously by British literary scholars than by American ones.) This British television production, co-financed by A&E, is perhaps a better filmed adaptation than many of the American ones: it certainly has in the British Thoby Stephens the best actor playing Gatsby in any surviving version, at least up to the time of its making. Quietly courtly and with a million dollar smile, Stephens retains no trace of a British accent, and seems much more convincing in the part than Alan Ladd and Robert Redford. His best scenes are with Paul Rudd, who is similarly well cast as Nick Carraway, Gatsbys convenient friend and confidant; Francie Swift (in a great shingled bob) also makes a good impression as Jordan Baker. Martin Donovan, probably as baffled as anyone else he could be cast as a former Yale football player, does much better than anyone ought to expect as Tom Buchanan. Only Mira Sorvino seems less than sure as Daisy Buchanan, in part because of her bad hairstyles (particularly in the wartime Louisville flashback sequences) and in part because, though very sympathetic, she can project neither Daisys affectedness nor her spoiledness. The acting is the best thing in the entire production, and is better by far than the fatally conventional direction by Robert Markowitz. This is the kind of TV movie that when Nick gets the invitation to Gatsbys we see flashbacks of various characters mentioning Gatsbys name in previous scenes (as if wed forgotten it). As you might expect with such a director, we get to see Myrtle Wilsons death in a flashback in all its gory vividness (splat!), and theres a montage to be dreaded featuring Gatsby and Daisy passionately together under white gauze draperies. The production seems to have skimped considerably on its budget: the Buchanans East Egg house seems incredibly underdecorated, and the parties at Gatsbys mansion seem underpopulated with extras doing the Charleston. When at the funeral Owl Eyes famously observes, Why my God, they used to go there by the hundreds, you expect Nick in this production to correct him: No, only by the dozens.

The movie, strangely enough, starts out with the end. It begins with Gatsby floating in the pool at the end of the summer. The movie then goes back to the beginning of the story when Nick moves into the house next to Gatsby. Nick visits his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom, across the bay in East Egg. There he meets Jordan Baker, a professional golfer who he takes quite a liking to. Nick later goes to one of many parties thrown weekly at Gatsbys house. There he meets Gatsby and becomes very interested in him. Gatsby has devoted the last five years to chasing Daisy and now he has the perfect way to meet her since her cousin lives right next door to him. He meets her again and they have a great time together until right near the end of the movie. For the most part, the movie stayed very accurate to the book. Having just read the book in Mr. Ms English class, I could remember some of the dialogue and recognized it as being the same as the book. The main themes were portrayed very well in the movie and it did a good job of keeping the characters as they were in the book. Nick was very well played by Paul Rudd. He played the role very well and depicted Nick just the way I imagined him. For the most part Toby Stephens did a very good job on Gatsby. The one drawback was his rather choppy delivery of Gatsbys trademark saying, old sport. The production was very smoothly done and truly gave the impression of the 1920s lifestyle. The costumes seemed very authentic to the time period and the people. Camera angles and the speed of the scenes went very well. The sound track was great. Often times I was paying more attention to the background music than what was happening in the movie. The movie was very good and pretty interesting but the music was also great and often grabbed my attention. A good movie to watch whether you have or havent read the book.

I purchased this film after seeing Toby Stephens excellent performance in the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre. He oozed charisma and owned the lead role... I have seen him in other films since then, and realize that he is a versatile and proficient actor. So, what happened here?! First of all, this was a TGG adaptation on a shoe string budget... However, since opulence played such a major part in the story written by FSF, not having it present in the film was equivalent to cutting out a lead character. Secondly, there was zero chemistry between the leads. Stephens performance was exhausting, as if he were being kept on a tight leash by the director. I could almost hear the guy giving TS a cue when to flash a smile, when to drop another labourious old sport phraze (which had me in a fully homicidal mode after the third utterance). Most actors, including the Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino, gave equally poor, high school level performances (no offence to high schoolers intended...). I felt genuinely embarrased for everyone involved...There is more, but....who cares? The makers didnt... Verdict: I want my money back!

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.

Received very quickly.

I liked this movie very much! I saw the original first and was recommended to check out this version. I like this one much better than the original. Highly recommend it!