I'm being facetious. Flick was enjoyable for about 1:45 of its 2:20 running time, with the first half hour dragging quite a bit

Story-wise, I have a vague recollection of the book, so I don't know/care how closely it adhered to it

But the sense that I'm getting is that it was *fairly* close, even though Baz made Gatsby a hero, somewhat, which is weird, because son was basically a broke dude who came up and became obsessed with a girl and stalked her out. I also remember that the book version of Gatsby is supposed to be a symbol of sorts, so I understand why Baz and co-writer Craig Pearce tried to flesh him out a bit more...

The story was fairly rudimentary, offering little in the way of surprises or nuance. Not sure how they could have deviated, though, without pissing off a legion of the book's fans. And I didn't mind the framing device of having Nick tell the story, either, though it was weird to have him spend the entire length of the film recounting this story as if it were some kind of mental purge, only to have him top it off in the end by adding "The Great" to his tome's title at the end. Or maybe I misread that. *shrugs*

Visually, it was gorgeous, as expected. The editing didn't bother me much at all, since that's how Baz gets down. Matter of fact, this movie is mostly a Baz Luhrmann highlight reel, with the usual Baz Luhrmann shit: flashy visuals, quick cutting, music mash-ups that have mixed results, a "tragic love story," etc.

Leo was perfect was Gatsby. Edgerton was cool as Tom. Didn't quite buy Tobey as Nick. Carey Mulligan is so cute. Character was barely there, though. Dug the Elizabeth Debicki, though. And I wished that Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke had more to do.

Boy, was it pretty to look at.

_________________________________________________________________________________
Voila, Magic.