The much anticipated Gatsby

The much talked-about, much-anticipated, much-discussed The Great Gatsby has almost arrived.

The official trailer has just been released and from the look of it, this movie has all the elements that make a Baz Luhrmann movie great. Doomed love affair, out of this world sets and costumes, an escape into a seductive fantasy world we all want to be in; right up until the moment the protagonists, blinded by the glitter and the glamour, fall into self-destruction.




I read on twitter (which went crazy) that the trailer was giving one women Romeo and Juliet excitement flashbacks. Watching the trailer for the first time at home I understood. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet was a major movie from my childhood. Not because we studied the play in English - that was long after the movie had been and gone. It was one of those movies every person my age saw and loved. It created iconic scenes and major stars. It made Shakespeare sexy and wild and dangerous. I own the DVD and I still love the film. Claire Danes and Leonardo di Caprio look so young now but they were of an age that I in my high school years could relate to. Not to mention that scene when you first meet Romeo and he's silhouetted against the sunset, smoking and brooding like an underweight James Dean. Even the soundtrack we all had to have with its mix of grunge, soul and disco.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby has hedonism, passion not to mention thrilling music and I cannot wait to see it.