The Great Gatsby- Movie Review

The Great Gatsby - Moview Review
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Cast : Leonardo Dicaprio , Toby Macguire ,Jason Clark, and others..

This movie is not new to start with. However i really liked the whole story. It's very good. You feel you are reading through a book full of characters who just come alive in a motion picture.I will keep this very short because it's not a story which can be told vividly until u watch the movie.

James Gatz ( better known as Jay Gatsby) was born to severely poor people. But he always had a vision to climb high , really high in life, as if God has planned a very wealthy , and successful future for him. He dreamt to reach and grasp the stars in the sky. He never considered his poor parents to actually be his real parents. One day as a young boy he sets out on his life's journey by fleeing home.He next comes across a wealthy old man whom he saves at sea. For a few next years he sails with him, learns and adapts to ways of being and acting royal and noble ( like how to wear the tie properly or how to talk to people and act classy). He thought when the old man died, he would inherit his wealth. Unfortunately when the old man died, his relatives drove Gatsby to poverty and took away all the wealth. All Gatsby had with him were hopes and the things that he learnt from the old man. His names flashed in news papers all after the drama relating to the inheritance of property.He had opportunity to go to war too. While in war he once visited a party where he met Daisy, the girl of his dreams, soft, simple, sweet,innocent too...She was very wealthy, he was a penniless soldier. They fell in love and in all his little dreams that he built , she would always be a apart of it. She became his inspiration to climb really high in life.

Soon after this Gatsby went back to the war and due to some unknown reason he didn't come back . In the meantime , Daisy waited and waited , and finally her marriage was fixed with a wealthy guy called Tom.On the day of her marriage she received a letter from Gatsby saying that he didn't come back because he was penniless.Gatsby had already considered Daisy as his wife in his mind.

This time daisy didn't wait. She married Tom. Later Gatsby came in touch with Wolfsheim , a businessman and in next 5 years that followed wealth kissed his feet. He bought a big palace on the opposite side of the huge lake of Daisy's house from where he could see a green light that used to glow outside Daisy's house.

In the meantime, Gatsby came in touch with Nick (who is the writer of this whole story) who happened to be Daisy's cousin. Nick gets to know slowly about Gatsby  that he was very flourished but all alone and infact a person who keeps throwing parties at his palace again and again.

When Gatsby came to know Nick was Daisy's cousin, he wanted to meet her , though he knew it was already too late.

However they met over a cup of coffee and slowly got back together romantically involved over the summer that passed by.Gatsby showed her that he had gained all the wealth in the world that they once used to dream of and he could get her anything, they could be together again. She however resented first but decided to tell Tom that she wants to be with Gatsby.

On the day they decided to let the cat out of the bag, that Daisy would let Tom know that she could no longer live with him because she never loved him. But daisy took her steps back and Gatsby and Tom fell out. However Gatsby took her and they both went out of the plaza and rushed into the street in their yellow car. Tom , Nick and Jordan (a girl whom Daisy was trying to fix up with Nick) followed in their blue car. Daisy was frustrated , angry and confused and wanted to drive. She drove so fast that she ran over a woman in the street who came rushing out towards the yellow car (this was actually Tom's car, the blue car was Gatsby's car) thinking it was Tom's car. This woman get's killed. Gatsby takes Daisy away not waiting there for one second because he had seen what happened and thinking Daisy could be in trouble , he took her home safely. This woman was actually the wife of a Gas station owner/worker who was very poor. She used to hence have an affair with rich Tom who would shower her with pearls and riches . Thus she was actually the kept wh*re of Tom about whom Nick knew.

When Tom , Nick and Jordan came to the accident spot , there was a lot of chaos. The husband of the dead mistress was all in anger and rage. He recognized the yellow car with which the accident as caused. He shouted that Tom was the killer. Tom asked him to hush down and that he will pay as much money as he wanted to keep his mouth shut about the car. He then told this man that the yellow car was actually being driven by a very bad man with whom his wife ( the dead woman) was sleeping around and he was the one showering her with riches . Tom easily brainwashed the man against Gatsby and even put the blame of his affair with teh dead woman on him.

That night back home , while Daisy explained to Tom that it was she who was driving the car, Tom composing her saying he will save her....Gatsby worried about Daisy waited outside the house ,ready to take the blame of killing the woman on to himself , so that nothing happens to Daisy. He was also worried that now that Tom knows that Daisy was in Love with Gatsby and has been so all the while , he was prepared to go to any step if Tom tried to hurt her that night.

 That dawn Gatsby explained to Nick his whole story from Rags to Riches and How it was only Daisy who has always been in his eyes, mind and heart all the while and that he could live that life that they dreamt of together  once again, once Daisy says herself that she was leaving Tom. All those parties that Gatsby kept throwing at his place were only with one hope (because he had once ran away cuz he was penniless, he didnt have the courage to face her) that Daisy would come to those parties one day with her rich husband Tom.

Nick meanwhile went back to his job and waited for a call from Gatsby where as Gatsby waited for a call from Daisy to make him happier than ever with the news that she was coming out of her marriage to Tom whom she confessed that she never loved. Meanwhile while Gatsby took a dip into the pool water and the phone by the side of the pool, he suddenly heard a ring. He climbed out of the water happiness and hopes re-surfacing in his eyes that Daisy had finally called her to be with him forever, the husband of the dead mistress points a gun at his back and shoots him. Gatsby falls back into the water dead and taking the name of Daisy in his lips and his eyes looking at the green light by Daisy's house which he always used to see.

It's seen that Daisy did think of calling him but she never called him. It was Tom who was soo impatient to hear the good news about his cousin Daisy and His beloved friend Gatsby that it was he who had called.

When the news reached him , he had already heard the gunshot over the phone, (the butler had picked the phone to hand it over to Gatsby who was swimming) , he came back to Gatsby's place just to hear that Gatsby was dead.

It was strange that Daisy who loved Gatsby dearly , neither did she call , nor she came up to see him for the last time . Not even a single flower came from her side. She with Tom prepared to leave . Nick called her house but their butler reported he doesn't know their whereabouts and that they had already left. They were right downstairs hearing the butler saying so and Tom asking him to say so. All those people to whom Gatsby threw parties , none of them too came over. Who all did show up were just reporters and channels who were hungry for the fresh news flowing out of the rich man house.

There is a point in the film where Nick calls out to Gatsby saying that he was different , very different and in a wonderful way than anyone else that he has seen. Nick fundamentally believes that Gatsby is "worth the whole damn bunch put together"  So you see hardwork and ambition made Gatsby who he was and what he hoped to be. May be he wouldn't mix with people because he preferred to be alone.His world was filled with hopes of one girl who will love him truly and who was in his dreams all this time....There wasn't dearth of women who would love to fall into his arms but he waited for this one innocent girl whom he referred to as he has never seen anyone as innocent and nice as her.... (  ^_^  awww choo cute )

On the other hand this film also shows how over the years Daisy's life with Tom had made her complicated , wealth hungry who knew how to only buy people to use them then leave them when their job is done. Her heart had withered away with time but it just gave Gatsby false hopes with which he died. Was Daisy's act justified? Did she really know what Love means? She didn't but Gatsby had kept her in his dreams , heart even when she was not around. Now that's called true love :-) where no meanness survives.While in Gatsby's loving arms she told him that she wanted to run far away with him away from all those riches and palaces.But ultimately she stayed back with Tom not willingly to leave the wealth or the like mind that she now possessed as of Tom.

Gatsby appears to be such an inspirational movie of love,ambition,hopes,dreams,emotions,truths, and everything that you can think of. I'd say a 4.9/5 it is soo good.

If you missed out on this film, time to download and watch it or get a DVD in blu ray .
Here is a trailer !  - by Zinnia