The Great Gatsby character review has been on a bit of a
hiatus recently. It’s nothing you
did, so don’t worry. I have been
looking very closely at how I am judging the character selections, and have tried to figure out a coherent way to explain how and why I am doing this.
Look, I am not trying to be too cynical in these reviews and
say that everyone will suck. Far
from it (except for Tobey). What I
am trying to do is review each actor and see if they fit the profile of the character they are portraying in the book. Australian or European or American
actors aside, can they live up to their predecessors and the original?
For example: Robert Redford’s version of Jay Gatsby (née Gatz)
was probably the best interpretation from the novel. Just my opinion, but the other two were good, but on a
different level of good. Maybe it
was the supporting cast, maybe it was what part of the theme was conveyed that
made Redford look good; whatever it was, it worked.
So, what tools do Leonardo DiCapro bring to make his
performance even better than Redford, thus making him an even closer
representation to the actual character, thus retelling the book in visual form in the best way possible (I will get to this comparison another
day)?
That’s the question I am trying to answer. So, with DeBicki, I can’t really answer
that question, but I can say that she has potential to make the character truly
hers because all she has at this point is potential. She has things to live up to, but she isn't pigeonholed in the role because she is a character actress. But, I can also say Tobey Maguire will be boring because he
does that in a good majority of his movies. Nick Carraway is not a boring character and he cannot exist
as a boring character meant to drive/narrate a plot, and that is TRUTH.
So, if that wasn’t confusing enough, basically I:
- describe the character portrayed in the book
- look at past roles
- look at others’ performances of the same character
- infer their role in the greater theme of the story and see if this is a good fit for them
- infer if this role will then make the movie better as a whole
- offer up suggestions based on no personal experience in feature films
Bringing all of these things together, one can make a
subjective assessment of how the character may act in the movie. Also, yes, I may be a little cynical, but oh well.
Today’s character: George Wilson
Luhrmann’s George: Jason Clarke
