Gene Seymour : How can any director translate beauty of Fitzgerald prose in `` Gatsby ? '' They keep trying , he says . Lurmann film comes close to touching novel 's emotional spirit . This also applies to the language -- which has left many so dumbstruck with wonder and admiration that it threatens to paralyze even one 's effort to express admiration for it . The book is thin , its characters distant , and that 's precisely the point , he says . Seymour : Reverent , literal adaptations do n't capture novel . He wants a more modern approach.
Gene Seymour : How can any director translate beauty of Fitzgerald prose in `` Gatsby ? '' They keep trying , he says . Lurmann film comes close to touching novel 's emotional spirit . The book is thin , its characters distant , and that 's precisely the point , he says . Seymour : Reverent , literal adaptations do n't capture novel . He wants a more modern approach.