The Great Gatsby
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 10, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
23
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 27, 2013
What Luhrmann makes intoxicating is a sense of place – the houses, the rooms, the city, the roads – and the sense that all this is unfolding in a bubble like some mad fable. Where he falters is in persuading us that these are real, breathing folk whose experiences and destinies can move us. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherMay 20, 2013
Gatsby fans will be unoffended yet untransported, but soundtracks will sell, DiCaprio will be on bedroom walls again and new readers may discover the book - which is no bad thing. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 8, 2013
The acting is really good, particularly Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. But boy, with a running time of nearly 21/2 hours and a near-constant bombardment of visual overstimulation, it’s exhausting. Read full review
60
VarietyScott FoundasMay 6, 2013
More often, Gatsby feels like a well-rehearsed classic in which the actors say their lines ably, but with no discernible feeling behind them. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergMay 8, 2013
Like Romeo + Juliet (1996), Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby emerges as a half-reverent, half-travestying adaptation that’s campy but not a betrayal, offering a lively take on a familiar work while sacrificing such niceties as structure, character, and nuance. Read full review
58
Film.comWilliam GossMay 8, 2013
In the end, his (Luhrmann) Gatsby takes the fitting form of a cocktail glass, at once undeniably polished and unfailingly empty. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMay 6, 2013
With the sound off, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby surely looks as radiant and extraordinary as some of the most dazzling movies ever committed to celluloid, but with the sound up and the experience on full volume, the movie is mostly a cacophony of style, excess and noise that makes you want to turn it all down a notch...or three... Read full review
50
NPRKeith PhippsMay 9, 2013
When Luhrmann finally reveals the title character, he does so as assorted partygoers work themselves into a frenzy, Rhapsody in Blue pounds on the soundtrack and fireworks explode in the sky...Unfortunately, the film is never again as successful; from here on, it has to dig into the bothersome business of telling Fitzgerald's story. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 9, 2013
There are so many things wrong with Luhrmann's Great Gatsby - the filmmaker's attention-deficit-disorder approach, the anachronistic convergence of hip-hop and swing, the choppy elision of Fitzgerald's plot, the jarring collision of Jazz Age cool and Millennial cluelessness. But at the crux of things, the problem is that it's impossible to care. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 9, 2013
Tobey Maguire is fine as Nick but his function is more as an observer than a participant. Carey Mulligan's Daisy is unremarkable in every way. And Joel Edgerton is just a mustache twirl away from doing a Snidely Whiplash impersonation. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMay 9, 2013
Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is a failure that should have at least been a magnificent mistake, a risky endeavor that showed a daring intent even if its brash vision didn’t quite succeed. Instead, the movie leaves you cold and weary and vaguely disgusted. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 9, 2013
Childlike, fetishistic and painfully literal, Luhrmann’s experiment proves once again that it’s Fitzgerald’s writing — not his plot, his characters or his grasp of material detail — that has always made “Gatsby” great. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 9, 2013
Despite a few good ideas and the uniformly splendid production and costume designs by Luhrmann's mate and partner, Catherine Martin, this frenzied adaptation of The Great Gatsby is all look and no feel. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 9, 2013
So much effort seems to have gone into the eye-popping production design, swooping camera work and anachronistic musical score that the result is hyper-active cacophony rather than enthralling entertainment. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 9, 2013
The Great Gatsby isn’t simply a classic American text: In Luhrmann’s hands, it’s also the greatest self-help manual ever written. Read full review
42
IndieWireEric KohnMay 6, 2013
Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby has the hallmarks of a contemporary Hollywood spectacle. It's missing the explosions, but make no mistake: Gatsby is one glitzy misfire. Read full review
40
EmpireIan NathanMay 19, 2013
Despite DiCaprio’s prize performance, purists will fume, but even as lit-crashing razzle-dazzle entertainment Luhrmann’s adaptation is a candelabrum too far. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 9, 2013
Luhrmann piles on one shiny distraction after another. But amid all the seductively gaudy excess, DiCaprio finds both the heart and hurt buried within one of literature’s everlasting enigmas. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMay 9, 2013
The director has steadfastly proclaimed his passion for the novel, but the film he's made of it too often plays as no more than an excuse to display his frantic, frenetic personal style. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 8, 2013
Luhrmann has always had a knack with the fever of passion, but here he only catches high fever’s empty gibberish. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 8, 2013
Whether or not Luhrmann’s “Gatsby” will go down in history as a legendary flop is not for me to judge (though all signs currently point toward yes), but it surely belongs to the category of baroque, overblown, megalomaniacal spectacles dubbed “film follies” by longtime Nation film critic Stuart Klawans. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 7, 2013
Shorn of its quintessentially American roots, a biting tale of adult extravagance becomes insubstantially tween-aged. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 6, 2013
Luhrmann's vulgarity is designed to win over the young audience, and it suggests that he's less a filmmaker than a music-video director with endless resources and a stunning absence of taste. [13 May 2013, p.78]
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