Enamored with Gatsby

I fell in love with Leo all over again…

I knew Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby was going to be good but I didn’t know how obsessed I was going to be with this movie! When movies are hyped up, I tend to want to rebel against the crowd but this movie left me daydreaming all week. 
Is it the love story that intrigues me? Is it Leo? Is it analyzing the fashion, time period and acting? It’s all of the above, including the phenomenal soundtrack executive produced by Jay Z. I can’t remember the last time I have obsessed over a movie..perhaps Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet?

The beautiful cinematography of this film is true to Luhrmann’s style, which I absolutely love. It’s full of visual wonderment and he has a special talent of blending the roaring 20’s with modern day excitement. Being from New York and living on Long Island, I can relate and daydream to similar experiences I have had. Specifically the upscale, A-list parties in the Hamptons and the excitement of New York City such as The Plaza.

On the day of the premiere, my two girlfriends and I rushed to the Union Square Movie Theater. We were a half hour early and even that wasn’t early enough. It’s exciting yet frustrating all at the same time. It felt like I was seeing The Titantic all over again. The mad rush, the girls sobbing next to me; I was having flashbacks.

The second time seeing it, I was that girl tearing up. I guess because I knew the tragic fate of Gatsby. It is a beautiful love story and Lana del Ray’s voice rang powerfully through out making for a perfect backdrop.

What is utmost noteworthy is of course Gatsby himself. Who is this lonely, startlingly well-off and mythical yet endearing man? I think back to the scene where he invites Daisy over for tea. Gatsby avoids the pouring rain with an entourage of umbrella holders and gets quite upset that he cannot control the weather. He could build a tremendous house and host lavish parties, but he would never be able to stop Daisy’s teardrops from falling or even repeat the past. Gatsby had a grand and indestructible plan for how he wanted his life to be. For Gatsby, the illusion of gaining everything he had ever wanted, was in fact, what he wanted. He lives his life in his imagination, dreaming of and yearning for his goals. There was something inside him, wanting to reach that green light at the end of the pier, but when reaching it, wishing he never did. Perhaps Gatsby is a fool, a beautiful little fool.

My girlfriends and I have been discussing the movie and the impact it had on all of us. We want a love like that. I didn’t even know I wanted that until I saw it. Is it possible to have a love like that? For it is only a movie but “The way he looks at her is the way all girls want to be looked at.”

                                      Perhaps we are all “beautiful, little fools”

“The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”

  Cheers, Old Sport