Sydney beats New York for Gatsby – a thumb in the eye for New York. Great news for New South Wales and a $120 million boost for the Australian film industry.
Luhrmann has a chance with Gatsby to recover the credibility and fans he lost with the appalling Australia.
It is a film he could do well.
But Leonardo diCaprio as Jay Gatsby? I cannot see how that will be believeable – especially after Robert Redford’s performance in Jack Clayton’s 1974 version.
Robert Redford’s portrayal was not perfect – Redford doesn’t do enigmatic. And Mia Farrow, who was superb in The Purple Rose of Cairo and Hannah Her Sisters, was simply dismal as Daisy. She looked as if she had wandered off another stage where she was playing a reprise of Blanche DuBois.
Jude Law or Daniel Day Lewis might have been better choices for Gatsby, with diCaprio as Nick Carraway.
But it is a great book – one of my all time favourites – and if Lurhmann can get his act together again, it will be a wonderful film.
