Leonardo DiCaprio is a lover and a fighter in the first trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s flashy interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Despite the overabundance of glitz and glamor in 1922 New York City, it’s the music that somehow stands out the most.
Luhrmann proved with Moulin Rouge that he can twist contemporary songs and classic themes into a perfect tie. For The Great Gatsby, he begins with a piece of Jay-Z’s and Kayne West’s ‘Watch the Throne’ which somehow meshes perfectly with the lavish and sexually charged NYC parties on display. The trailer then cuts to U2’s ‘Love is Blindness’ which again seems to fit the thematic shift from wild parties and lust to love and pain despite seemingly having no business playing alongside the story of The Great Gatsby.
In addition to a suave Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, the full-length trailer reveals all the other key players from the film. Tobey Maguire is the outsider Nick Carraway, a midwesterner who gets caught up in Gatsby’s whirlwind world. Also appearing are Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker, Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Woflsheim, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, and Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson.
Like all of Luhrmann’s previous work, The Great Gatsby is undeniably a stellar piece of eye candy. There are numerous “money” shots in the trailer and the overall aesthetic alone separates it from any previous interpretation of the source material.
Whether Luhrmann can deliver a narrative as equally compelling as the sights and sounds isn’t as clear cut.
The Great Gatsby opens in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25, 2012.
