F. Scott Fitzgerald's American classic gets the splashy 3D adaptation no one was particularly asking for in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. To recount the plot every high schooler knows; Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) moves to West Egg, New York and befriends the mysterious Jay Gatsby. The young millionaire throws opulent parties, but longs for the dame across the bay he once knew. Leonardo DiCaprio thankfully succeeds as the ever hopeful Gatsby, sugaring his New Money coolness with desperate anguish. Likewise Carey Mulligan, who makes the best out of the blank dullard that Daisy Buchanan truly is. It's only when Luhrmann interjects, with garish CGI effects and anachronistic Jay-Z songs (which hit far too on the nose), that everything falls apart. The Great Gatsby has a workhorse cast, and some of the best written dialogue that the 20th century produced. It just also has a terribly off-kilter director behind the wheel.
