Gene Seymour : How can any one translate beauty of Fitzgerald prose in ` ` Gatsby ? '' They keep trying , he says . Lurmann film comes close to capturing Fitzgerald '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 the novel . But it 's succeeds .
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 . But Lurmann 's succeeds .