As the fifth film adaptation of one of America's most beloved novels, Director Baz Luhrmann's newly-premiered film, The Great Gatsby, interprets F. Scott Fitzgerald's original work in a sensational fashion. Distributed by Warner Bros. Studios, Gatsby has been surrounded by an impressive media hype for months now.

The production was fueled by a veteran team of creative forces, including Producer/Costume and Production Designer Catherine Martin, who is married to and worked alongside Luhrmann on the 1996 production of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and the 2001 classic Moulin Rouge!. I was surprised to learn that musician Jay-Z was an executive producer of the film, and even more shocked when the first appearance of Jay Gatsby's mansion in the film was accompanied by blaring hip-hop music.

In addition, the heavy presence of brand sponsorship and subtle product placement within the film added to its air of both sophistication and creative collaboration. The countless lavish gems that the actors and actresses were decked out in were either taken directly or recreated from the archives of Tiffany & Co. Further, the actors' clothing was provided by Brooks Brothers, an upscale brand that had a working relationship with Fitzgerald during his lifetime. From the creative team to the film's sponsors to the branding and marketing of the film itself, the entire production is dripping with the spirit of Jay Gatsby-someone who lives an over-the-top lifestyle, to whom success seems to come easily and magically.

Even the cast of Gatsby indulges the film's preoccupation with all things elegant, featuring actors whose marketable reputations built up priceless hype around the production. The enigma that is Leonardo DiCaprio is a perfect choice for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Typecast Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire plays the jaded narrator Nick Carraway and the uber-masculine Joel Edgerton plays the hulking villain Tom Buchanan. The lovely Daisy Buchanan is played by fresh-faced beauty Carey Mulligan, her athlete friend Jordan Baker is played by Elizabeth Debicki and Tom's flat mistress Myrtle Wilson is played by the stunning Isla Fisher.

Although all of the actors fostered an amazing chemistry from the start of the film, I was initially a bit distracted by a creative decision that Luhrmann made with regard to the plot. The film opens with Carraway talking to a therapist, as he has been admitted to a treatment program for his alcoholism, depression and insomnia-a detail that was not at all featured in Fitzgerald's original plot. I do understand the clever function of this plot addition as a frame for Carraway's narration, as the viewer is, more than once, plucked from the story and returned to Carraway's writing desk in the treatment facility as he recounts the story of his friendship with Gatsby.

I think that this is a liberty too easily taken, however, and that it is a great compromise of Fitzgerald's conception of Carraway's character. Nick is one of American literature's greatest hypocrites, proclaiming that he is honest and nonjudgmental from the first chapter. Positioning him toward mental instability detracts from the story's theme of moral deterioration, as Carraway is, by default, to be given more moral leeway because of his admittance.

However, as the film moved into the story that Carraway tells about meeting Gatsby and as he divulged the tragic details of Gatsby and Daisy's romance, I became much less distracted and felt that the storytelling was simultaneously rapturous and endearing. Both DiCaprio's and Mulligan's performances were absolutely stellar, portraying the complex emotional facets of the literary characters that add to the passion between the ill-fated lovers.

A precise cinematographic approach that often focuses on small details of these two actors like their hands, hair, outfit details or shifts in their body movements as they encounter each other throughout the film are aesthetically reminiscent of the pastiche film style that gained popularity in 1980s cinema. The camera often quickly darts between groups of people, their gestures or snippets of loud conversation, but always slows down and focuses stoically on Gatsby and Daisy, building a point-of-view of intimacy and tenderness between the two. Overall, Luhrmann's Gatsby is one of the greatest premieres of the early summer cinema season.