The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann's latest foray into vintage decadence delivers the director's characteristic flamboyance and romance, and serves as a perfect companion to both Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

The Great Gatsby is a fantasy; the debauchery and booze-fuelled parties of a bored 1920s elite is captured in glossy, sumptuous colour set against a soundtrack of contemporary music remixed with jazz and vaudeville. As Luhrmann's leading man for the second time, Leonardo DiCaprio brings a maturity and an intensity to Gatsby, subtly revealing the many layers of a fascinating, charming, conflicted character. While supported by a solid cast, including Joel Edgerton as cad Buchanan and Carey Mulligan as Daisy, the woman caught between the two men, Gatsby the character and DiCaprio the actor dominate the screen.

It is, however, too long, and while the hedonistic parties hosted by the enigmatic Gatsby are glorious and inviting in 3D, the gimmick loses its impact as the film progresses. Yet after the frenetic, delirious excess of Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby suggests the work of a more focused director whose penchant for extravagant chaos is carefully controlled, so it is never allowed to overwhelm the delicate, tender romance at the film's centre. [Becky Bartlett]