the great gatsby: redford vs. dicaprio smackdown

Baz Luhrmann's version of The Great Gatsby is brash and loud and colorful, compared to the pastel-hued tones of Jack Clayton's 1974 version. But is it a better film? Yes and no. The real take-away as the credits began to roll was that F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless tale had proved, once again, to be, while not exactly un-filmable, at least as elusive to capture as Gatsby's dream of a future life with Daisy proved to be.

Leonardo DiCaprio was effective and impressive as Jay Gatsby, the self-made (and re-made) man, a dreamer who wants to go back in time with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. DiCaprio was able to convey how much he cared for Daisy, and how deeply his small-town origins still hung about him, no matter how hard he tried to escape them. In 1974 Robert Redford captured the Gatsby facade, and wore the clothes (designer Theoni V. Aldredge won the Best Costume Oscar, but Ralph Lauren did the men's suits) with more ease and authority. Redford even made the phrase "old sport" sound almost natural and seemed more convincingly menacing as a man who may have been hiding some dark secrets. But DiCaprio was able to take the character to a more emotional place.

He wore it well: Robert Redford in one of Ralph Lauren's linen suits

Gatsby, looking good poolside

What really rankled in the 2013 version was how the women in the story all seemed to be relegated to the background. Daisy may have been Gatsby's focus and the impetus for all of his character's actions, but as played by Carey Mulligan she was just a bland, soft-voiced, Southern-drawling cipher. Luhrmann didn't even acknowledge Daisy's lack of mothering skills — until the last few moments of the film the audience, unless they were acquainted with the book or earlier film version, would hardly know she even has a child. As miscast as Mia Farrow might have been in the 1974 version, she at least was front and center throughout the story. Her Daisy was flighty and selfish and rather unlikable. Probably a litte too unlikable. But Daisy Buchanan, as Fitzgerald wrote her, is not, ultimately, a great person. Luhrmann tried to soft-pedal some of his heroine's faults at the end, which should annoy fans of the novel. Daisy also was dressed in impractical, busy summer frocks, designed by Catherine Martin (who is married to Luhrmann), and an unattractive bleach blond bob.

We have come to expect the character of Daisy to be un-castable, but there is no excuse for how poorly Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson were represented in this latest film version. Elizabeth Debicki started off promisingly as Jordan Baker, Daisy's professional golfer best friend, but then practically disappeared from the action, as Luhrmann chose to focus on narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and Gatsby and Daisy. What happened to Nick and Jordan's romance, or Jordan's witty, wicked sense of humor? What happened to Fitzgerald's interesting, multifacted female characters? Gone.

And unless the viewer is paying strict attention, it is possible that Tom Buchanan's (Joel Edgerton) lover, Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher) might be completely missed. With Luhrmann's frenetic pacing of certain scenes it's altogether likely that not only would one not catch Myrtle's name, but also not realize at first that she was the person who tried to flag down Gatsby's yellow car as it whizzed by in a penultimate scene of the movie.

Daisy's husband Tom is a jerk and a racist and a bigot, but he actually does care for Myrtle. Their relationship in both the book and the 1974 filmed version is portrayed as something far beyond casual. Joel Edgerton tried hard to fill in the blanks left in Luhrmann's script. Bruce Dern may have been a strange casting choice as the rich, Old Money, hunky, athletic Tom in 1974, but he very ably portrayed the boor's love of both of his women, Daisy and Myrtle.

That's a lot of lace and flounces for a summer frock

Leo, as Gatsby, raises his glass in a welcoming toast

Quick takes, 1974:

The screenplay/adaptation was by Francis Ford Coppola (!)

The scene where Nick has dinner with Daisy and Tom and Jordan: we see Daisy get jealous of Tom taking Myrtle's phone call — she is definitely hurt, and we feel that she really loves him.

The close-up camerawork was a little disconcerting.

Extra scenes showing Gatsby and Daisy's affair once they become reacquainted make us believe that their love may have a chance.

The scene with Gatsby showing his shirts to impress Daisy really works, as does the scene featuring Gatsby's final swim in his pool.

Quick takes, 2013:

A real stand-out scene is the final confrontation at the Plaza Hotel, where DiCaprio lets Gatsby (finally) lose his cool.

The tea that Gatsby arranges at Nick's to (re)meet Daisy, with Gatsby over-filling his small cottage with flowers and cakes, his nervous anticipation and awe at seeing the love of his life after five years, is both funny and poignant to watch.

The first over-the-top party that Nick attends at Gatsby's is everything Luhrmann is known for — visual opulence, hip music, frenetic camerawork — and it's great fun to watch. Unfortunately the rest of the film can't quite keep up the pace.

Tobey Maguire's Nick Carraway was even more removed and diffident than Fitzgerald's. Not many could attend a drug and alcohol-fueled orgy and still remain uninvolved, but somehow he pulled it off. Luhrmann's framing device of having an alcoholic Carraway narrate the film from a sanitarium as he writes the story didn't quite work, either.

The hip-hop music used to "update" this Gatsby actually worked quite well, but like many of the other design elements, seemed to lessen or disappear as the film progressed. Why not truly update the story to modern times instead of keeping it in the '20s? That may have held this film back from being a truly modern version.

Mia Farrow and Robert Redford as Daisy and Gatsby

L-R: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy and Tom (Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton)

As much as this latest version of The Great Gatsby didn't quite live up to my expectations — its vaunted excess actually seemed to peter out about halfway through the film into straight melodrama — it's hard not to admire both Luhrmann's ambition and aspiration to film such a complex literary classic. When most multiplex movie fare involves superheroes who battle endless CGI explosions, or the latest entry in a franchise that features cars driving really, really fast, a film that ends with some of the most evocative words in American literature is something to applaud:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Related articles

• the great gatsby
• xoxoxoe's #CBR5 Review #5: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

the odd life and odd film that is timothy green

What an odd little film is The Odd Life of Timothy Green. It's certainly not what my eight year old daughter expected. It's a fairy tale and a meditation on life and love. For anyone who thinks from the previews that this Disney film will just be about a cute boy who has leaves on his legs is in for a bit more. The movie, directed and written by Peter Hedges (About A Boy, Dan in Real Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape) from an idea by Ahmet Zappa, starts off with a young married couple, Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim Green (Joel Edgerton), who are being given the bad news that after many attempts and procedures and lots and lots of expense, they are unable to have a child. They are bereft. Their sad mood extends to the depressed town, Stanleyville, they live in, with its multiple closings and threats of job loss. Everyone in town seems to be cranky or unhappy.

As a sort of closure exercise to how hard they have tried to have a child and failed, they decide (after drinking a lot of wine) to write down what their kid would have been like (a big heart, always truthful, not great at sports but would one day kick the winning goal, etc.), and they place all of the notes in a wooden box and bury it in their garden. That is not the end of their hopes but the beginning.

A storm rages that night — only over their house — and they awake to find a 10-year-old boy (CJ Adams), covered in dirt, and a big hole in their garden where the box was buried. Their dreams have come true and their new son Timothy is very special, indeed — he has beautiful green leaves growing out of his lower legs. Timothy has a special effect on everyone he encounters. But it isn't always positive. The Odd Life of Timothy Green is full of small and quirky supporting characters: Ron Livingston as Jim's horrible boss (a nice switch from his part in Office Space); Dianne Wiest as Cindy's not-quite-as-horrible-as-Jim's boss; Odeya Rush as Joni,  a girl who befriends Timothy and sees him for how special he is; David Morse as Jim's hard-to-please father; Common as Timothy's not very encouraging soccer coach; and Shohreh Aghdashloo as a woman who works at an adoption agency.

Timothy makes friends with Joni

The Greens take Timothy to a horticulturist friend for a check-up

Timothy practices some photosynthesis

The magical realism in the movie may be a bit difficult for some audience members (and not just the kids) to grasp. They may just find it corny. So many of the Greens' friends, family, and neighbors are just cruel or stupid and border on caricature. What is truly unique about the film is how it points out that no matter how hard the Greens have wanted a child, when he finally turns up they haven't the slightest idea of what to do with him. Just having set up a nursery/kid's room doesn't mean they have any idea on how to parent. They make mistakes, jump to crazy conclusions, hover and fumble their way through each day with their unusual son. This is true for all parents. No matter how many handbooks might be consulted, children and life are highly unpredictable and uncontrollable. The Greens are also wrapped up in competing with their families — Cindy with her over-achieving, snobbish sister and Jim trying to prove that he will be a better, more attentive father than his father was to him.

What is at the heart of The Odd Life of Timothy Green is how odd it is, not to be a boy with leaves on his legs, but a parent. It's about yearning, and feelings. It's sweet and even sappy at times. Nothing blows up. It might be a tad too sentimental for some, but it's so earnest that its hard to be hard on it. Like Timothy and Cindy and Jim it has a big heart.