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An absolute waste of money

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I read the book finally, this production follows the book very closely, even some of what the characters say.everything else was all wrong. the biggest casting error was Mira Sorvino as Daisy. Ms Sorvino's niche is the street wise and very beautiful leading lady; smart and witty and attractive. Daisy is the 1920's damsel-in-distress; an idle femme fatale socialite with daily concerns including whether enough windows are open. i.e. a bubblehead.its always nice to see a period piece, albeit the early 20th century period with all the suits, gowns, vehicles to match; it adds to the mood of the story but has yet in all Hollywood history to suffice if the casting, storyline, script or combination isn't up to snuff. set decoration is only ever the cherry on top, nothing more.the book is a fast read; read the book before making final judgement on any 'gatsby' versions. as far as the morality angle, the story continues to be very very timely: read the newspapers: milken, enron, worldcom, conrad black, etc etc; anyone who gets a LOT of money really really fast cheated. it has to do with basic physics or something; it can't be done.

Yes, those of us who know Fitzgerald's elegant writing do appreciate the production values and most of the casting is adequate, but Mia Sorvino is miscast. Without comparing her to any other movie version or actress, I just believe any actress cast as Daisy has to get it right: the Southern belle who appears fragile yet worldly wise, and the voice, well Gatsby and Nick both know her voice is "fiull of money", else how could she be Gatsby's inattainable dream? I know she can act, but Sorvino cannot adapt her height and strident voice to be Daisy B. I Unlike some other viewers, I was not put off by Stephens'performance, and I do think he managed the "old sport" posing and smiling quite nicely. Rudd is lucky to have so many wonderful narrative voice overs and I was moved by his scene with Klipspringer before Gatsby's funeral.

The acting in this film is awful. Everyone except Paul Rudd had no idea what they were doing. The cinematography is fine, it is a good LOOKING movie, but the overall approach is an elementary no-no. A movie's purpose is to convey meaning primarily through images, visual sensations. If, however, the movie simply reads the narration of the book rather than inventing a meaningful way to integrate the theme into the overall sequence of images and events, the movie has failed. It is an audio book. However, when an audio book plays, the actors usually have some sort of idea as to their character's motivations. These actors did not. They wandered around, limply saying their lines like a class of ninth graders reading Shakespeare impromptu in English class. The only redeeming scene in this movie -- and I don't believe this to be too much of a spoiler but I marked it anyway -- was the scene of Myrtle being run over. Wonderful special effects were present in that scene, and while the sudden gory detail was unnecessary and crude, at least I had a reason to look up.

Having viewed this recently, I must say that the film failed on almost all levels for me. The only thing I really got out of this film was a laugh at the poor acting, the ridiculous crash scene, and a sore fist from pounding it as I was continually angered by unoriginal camera work. I can't really see why this film was even made... The previous three films combined can at least give a decent rendition of the profound and wonderful work that was 'The Great Gatsby'. It was a book that was made to be a movie (as shown by the many attempts), but It has never quite made the transition smoothly. At least in the past, the films weren't quite so laughable, and didn't make nearly as many changes from the text that hurt the overall presentation for no apparent reason. I cannot recommend this film to anyone. I must advise that you simply read the novel, but If you must see a film adaption, make something other than this...