OPENING in 1922 and based on the 1925 novel by American author F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby has already been adapted for the silverscreen three times.

Directed by British filmmaker Jack Clayton (Room at the Top), the most recent 1974 version starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow as the titlecharacters Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, with Laura Dern’s father Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway.

The film won both of its Oscar nominations, but they were ‘only’ for best score and costume.

Like the book in the author’s own lifetime, any depth Francis Ford Coppola’s script had was overloooked – and rightly so in that case.

The story is told through the retrospective thoughts of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), a bond salesman in New York who ends up at one of Jay Gatsby’s (Leonardo DiCaprio’s) lavish parties and becomes fascinated by the wealth on show.

Nick’s cousin is Daisy Buchanan, wife of Tom (Joel Edgerton) who, he discovers, is having an affair with Myrtle (Isla Fisher), wife of garage owner George Wilson (Jason Clarke).

Having known Daisy for several years and still being in love with her, we finally meet Gatsby staring across the water towards the light where she lives.

If Nick can organise a reunion, will they finally get together?

News of the story’s reappearance on the silver screen was welcome – especially when the first lavish trailer appeared last autumn.

A chance to increase the drama at the expense of the opulence, perhaps, while still mixing the American Dream with its own nightmare alter ego.

Never one to be shy of ambition, Australian director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) has attempted to achieve both things at once – and thrown in 3D for good measure, too.

The result is an overlong, 143-minute film which feels, certainly in the first half at least, weighed down by its own, dizzying magnitude.

But, the longer it goes on, the more it draws you in to its characters’ lives, fates and (mis)fortunes.

It helps that the story now has great relevance to the 21st century’s mixture of attainable riches and damaging corruption, a heady cocktail which still has the potential threat to leave the West on its knees, just like Gatsby here.

In this age of Twitter and other forms of social media, it’s also increasingly common for people to jump to conclusions too early and to see an answer before they find the truth.

The shocking denouement here is a reminder to think before you blink.

While DiCapro and former Spider-Man star Maguire are used to working on enormous projects, there’s a sense that it’s about time the pair of them downsized. 

To let their copious talents speak for themselves, more than the costumes and lavish sets behind them.

While The Roaring Twenties has been a fertile hunting ground for Hollywood in recent years, with movies including The Changeling, this is DiCaprio’s third after Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and Clint Eastwood’s J Edgar.

It’s testimony to his talent that he’s pulled off the roles in all of them – particularly so here when the drama is left playing second fiddle.