Reviews

This TV movie was a big disappointment. Both as a novel adaptation, but also judged independently. The DVD version I saw came without subtitles, and the sound quality was very weak, so that I couldn't understand all of the dialogues (I'm a German native). Juhnke was the only actor that was at least halfway convincing. As a result, it was very difficult to relate to the characters. Intrinsic motivations of the characters were unclear, and their relationships were undeveloped and unexplained. For example - contrary to the novel - it was not at all understandable why Eleonor was interested in Erich. Also, the beginning of the addiction somehow just happened in the movie, whereas the novel did a much better job in explaining what was going on inside Sommer, step by step. Moving the setting from between the world wars to the nineties was a bad decision. Many of the most interesting aspects of the story are tightly connected to the historic setting (class consciousness, classic roles of husbands and wives, incapacitation of alcoholics, psychiatry etc.).

The movie is colorful, fun to watch, and fun to listen to. To be a really good movie, however, the actors are not satisfying enough. DiCaprio/Gatsby looks like his face is swollen after too much tanning. Daisy misses out on the big emotions, and it's hard to understand why Gatsby is so focused on her. And Maguire/Nick is ... just there, somehow. Also, as a literary adaptation, the movie has a few shortcomings. The idealism of Gatsby, catalyzed by how Nick sees him, is one of the main themes of the book. In the movie, this idealism and optimism is mentioned often enough, but it is not put into scene in a credible manner. DiCaprio/Gatsby comes across as an odd and slightly crazy guy who is at the brink of losing control, and not as someone who, day after day, year after year, lives for the love he once owned.