"The Great Gatsby"

What a movie........... what a movie............ and to think that I didn't want to see this because I thought it would be another failure of a re-make, like the one with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (my apologies to both, but they were mis-cast).

We saw "Gatsby" last night.... J, J, S, and myself.  As much as we all laughed during the car ride into town, we were as quiet as church-mice as soon as the art-deco screen came up that welcomed us into the Roaring 20s.  The movie consumed you from the very beginning.......... we were transported into another era, another time, this light-hearted bubble of Fitzgerald's story. And once you realized you were there, you didn't want to leave....... the fashions, the jewelry, the music, the story.... that unbelievable, incredible, fantastic, over-the-moon-and-back story......

I've always loved that book, but this film captured Fitzgerald's sense of the decade. I'd see the movie again tomorrow if I had the time to do it..... but I just don't have the time this week.  After getting home from the movie last night, I went upstairs to the library to get my copy of "Gatsby" from the shelves........... I started reading it this morning.   As I'm reading, I can hear the voice of the film's Nick Carraway character in my head as he narrates the story.

And Leonardo DiCaprio..... he was made to play Gatsby.  He captured the character, the feeling, the essence of Fitzgerald's work and words.  We've seen DiCaprio in other films, but this one is the best..... if he doesn't win an Oscar for this movie, then all faith in the Academy Awards will die a blessed death once and for all.

As a group, the husbands were not interested in seeing this movie.  It was a ladies-movie-night, the four of us in the car anticipating the film on the way into town, then discussing the movie during the ride back.......... and then this morning, as I met J on the road for our walk, I called out "Good morning, Old Sport!"  (Gatsby lives, even on this long and winding country road, in our Hill Country bubble.)

Final thought............. Go and see this movie!  And then see it again if you can!