What’s Trailer Got To Do With It? The Great Gatsby Edition

By Alexandra Savio

Ah, The Great Gatsby, required reading for 90% public school Americans. Just to peak your memory it is about  Nick Carraway (played by former Spiderman Tobey McGuire) moving to the fictional East Egg, Long Island, meeting up with his cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Tom and ultimately befriending a rich mystery man named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio).

The Great GatsbyNow the story was told through Nick Carraway’s eyes but the message, torment and story lies with Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has become one of the ultimate symbols for The American Dream: that no matter where you started out or what happened with your past, money, importance and comfort are possible for you.
The drive for all of this for Jay Gatsby, the only reason he had any desire for any of those things: his lost love aka golden girl Daisy Buchanan. The love story of The Great Gatsby is if he could just get to the green light, if he could just get enough money, he can win her back.

In the 2012 version Leonardo DiCaprio is rightly casted as the rich, bachelor man-of-mystery. You can already tell from the luxurious trailer that he pulls off Jay Gatsby’s learned classiness and Gatsby’s torment. You can’t spell Gatsby without torment. Yet even though I like Carey Mulligan, and Dicaprio and her have some chemistry, I don’t really believe that DiCaprio plotted for years and worked so hard for money to get Carey Mulligan. Actually I can picture Carey Mulligan and Tobey McGuire having more chemistry, but they’re cousins in this. It’s not that kind of movie...Sicko.

None of this will actually matter of course because they’re both such great actors. DiCaprio has more than proved himself with his acting capabilities (has he ever been nominated for an Oscar?...to Wikipedia!) and Mulligan is a fantastic actress. She is especially good when she’s working with men. Their portrayals of the characters will outshine any lack of chemistry between them.