Fitzgerald classic adapted to television

by Adam Koehler
THE POST

Put on your spats and grab your derby cap as the Arts and Entertainment Network is now showing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Originally released in 1925, this classic tale of high-society social life and heartbreak is now the latest made-for-television film produced by the same network that does those Biography shows.

For those unfamiliar with the tale, Nick Carraway, played by Paul Rudd (the cutesy and dopey stepbrother in Clueless) narrates and is the eventual focal point of the story. The Great Gatsby is set during the Jazz Age, a time when money was king and excessive drinking and callused socializing were its mistresses. Like the symbolic green light of the tale, Nick guides us forward and ahead, forging through the conceit and carelessness of the world around him.

On the surface it is a love story centering on Jay Gatsby (Toby Stephens) and Daisy Buchanan (Mira Sorvino) and the forces that move to stop their union. A second cousin, once removed of Daisy and neighbor of Gatsby, Nick becomes grudgingly but dutifully involved in the fiasco of their reunion. Along the way to his "loss of wonder" by the end of the tale, Nick becomes involved with professional women’s golfer Jordan Baker. The story is all about love, but the real thing to take away from The Great Gatsby is the feel of the1920s for a distinct group of people whom Ernest Hemingway later deemed the "Lost Generation."

The movie touts Academy Award Winner Mira Sorvino as the biggest star in the film. She plays the role of Daisy Buchanan, the weak-willed and whimsical dame who is the lost love of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby. Sorvino does a fair job in her adaptation, but doesn’t measure up to her more defined counterpart in the novel.

Stephens’ Gatsby performance, on the other hand, is too basic to do justice to the shadowed man created by Fitzgerald. His crooked smile quickly becomes an annoyance as does his poor sell of the phrase "old sport," which comes across much more effectively in the novel.

Fittingly, the real star of the film and best acting performance comes courtesy of Rudd as Nick. Perfectly cast as the honest and pure narrator of the story, Rudd’s performance purveys all the vital aspects of the character to whom we can relate so well in the novel.

Martin Donovan plays Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s pompous and adulterous husband who is the main obstacle to Gatsby’s quest for united love with Daisy. Francie Swift plays Jordan Baker, the golfer friend of Daisy and love interest of Nick. Heather Goldenhersh as Myrtle, Tom’s lady friend, and William Camp as Wilson, Myrtle’s distressed husband, round out the cast.

Unfortunately, several aspects of the film don’t amount to the brilliance of Fitzgerald’s prose. But that is expected from a made-for-television adaptation. The sets come across as a bit low budget, though the cinematography might be to blame here. The novel does a much better job with the visuals, courtesy of Fitzgerald’s incisive and descriptive writing abilities and the reader’s imagination — the qualities your high school English teacher always stressed.

Regardless, A&E’s The Great Gatsby does have its merit, if for nothing else than Rudd’s performance. Not surprisingly, the essence of the story is captured in the book.