The Great Gatsby. Art Direction:10. Direction: 5.

I really hated the book The Great Gatsby. I find it pretentious and abstruse and couldn't care less about any of the characters. So, when I heard they were remaking The Great Gatsby, I gleefully predicted it would be another disaster. Apparently I was wrong. It seems that it has done well at the box office. Which doesn't mean that it's a good film. But at least it's half good. My first surprise was that, as far as could see, Leonardo DiCaprio was not the star of the movie, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway was. At least it seemed they spent more time on his character, his expressive face, and his moral dilemmas than on Leonardo as Jay Gatsby. Although Leonardo was excellent in the role and was every bit as handsome as any matinee idol of the 20s.  Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan was the perfect love interest, while Joel Edgerton as her cuckholded husband, Tom, stole most of the scenes he was in.  Frankly, I felt the opening hour was ridiculous. The party scenes, while great to look at, were so over-the-top as to kill one's crediblity about the rest of the film. But fortunately at a certain point Baz Luhrmann got tired of his silly Moulin Rouge excesses and decided to tell the story. Then, despite still more unlikely over-art-directed scenes like a speeding yellow Duesenberg in downtown Manhattan, and an early morning speakeasy orgy, the film got interesting. But ultimately, it wasn't even as compelling as a single episode of Boardwalk. So, after all is said and done, I think you can add this fourth The Great Gatsby to the "Good try, Old Sport" list.