The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars an ensemble cast consisting of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki.

In December 1929, World War I veteran Nick Carraway, undergoing treatment at a psychiatric hospital, tells his doctor about Jay Gatsby, the most hopeful man he ever met.

Seven years earlier, in the summer of 1922, Nick moved from the Midwest to New York, where he rents a small groundskeeper's cottage in the North Shore village of West Egg, next to the mansion of Gatsby, a mysterious business magnate who often hosts extravagant parties.

When Nick returns home, he sees Gatsby standing by the harbor, reaching toward a green light coming from the Buchanans' dock.

Tom brings Nick to the Valley of Ashes, an industrial dumping site between West Egg and the city and picks up his mistress Myrtle Wilson at a garage owned by her husband George.

Nick, who was the one calling, hears the gunshots and is the only person other than reporters to attend Gatsby's funeral as Daisy, Tom, and their daughter are leaving New York.

[15] While Luhrmann was at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he had been workshopping The Great Gatsby in 3D, though he had not yet decided whether to shoot in the format.

[22] The next month Deadline Hollywood reported that Luhrmann had been auditioning numerous actresses, including Seyfried, Keira Knightley, Jessica Alba, Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively, Abbie Cornish, Michelle Williams and Scarlett Johansson, as well as considering Natalie Portman, for Daisy.

[20] Mulligan won the role shortly after Luhrmann showed her audition footage to Sony Pictures Entertainment executives Amy Pascal and Doug Belgrad, who were impressed by the actress' command of the character.

[20] Mulligan burst into tears after learning of her casting via a phone call from Luhrmann, who informed her of his decision while she was on the red carpet at an event in New York.

Luhrmann said: "I was privileged to explore the character with some of the world's most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation, all of which were legitimate and exciting.

However, specific to this particular production of The Great Gatsby, I was thrilled to pick up the phone an hour ago to the young Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan and say to her: 'Hello, Daisy Buchanan.

'"[20] In April 2011, Ben Affleck was in talks about playing the role of Tom Buchanan but had to pass due to a scheduling conflict with Argo (2012).

[37] The "Valley of Ashes", the desolate land located between West Egg and New York was shot in Balmain, New South Wales.

[43] Martin and Prada worked closely together to create pieces with "the European flair that was emerging amongst the aristocratic East Coast crowds in the Twenties".

[43] Most prominently, the women were clothed to emphasize their breasts, such as Daisy's push-up bra, in contrast to the flat-chested fashions of the era.

[43] "If you look at the fashion illustrations, as opposed to what actually ended up being made, you will see that the '20s were all about sex," Martin stated in a Collector's Weekly interview.

"[43] Alice Jurow of the Art Deco Society observed that the film's highly stylized costume designs reflected contemporary audiences' inaccurate expectations and misconceptions of 1922 fashions.

[43] "When people say 'the Gatsby era,' there's definitely a mid-'20s concept that comes to mind, with the shorter skirts and the real archetypal flapper look," explained Jurow.

The collection comprises 7 pieces: a brooch, a headpiece (both reportedly based on archival Tiffany designs), a necklace and four different rings, including one in platinum with a 5.25-carat diamond, priced at US$875,000.

[56] A snippet of the track appeared in the official trailer for the film and played during the scene where the characters portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan express their romantic feelings for one another.

[54] Chris Payne of Billboard praised Beyoncé and André 3000's cover of "Back to Black", made unique with a downtempo EDM wobble.

[54] The xx recorded "Together" for the film, with Jamie Smith telling MTV that the band's contribution to the soundtrack sounds like "despair",[58] and revealing that it utilizes a 60-piece orchestra.

[61] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal criticized the film as "a tale told idiotically, full of noise and furor, signifying next to nothing.

[68] The Chicago Reader review felt "Luhrmann is exactly the wrong person to adapt such a delicately rendered story, and his 3D feature plays like a ghastly Roaring 20s blowout at a sorority house".

[71] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe reserved special praise for DiCaprio's performance, saying "magnificent is the only word to describe this performance—the best movie Gatsby by far, superhuman in his charm and connections, the host of revels beyond imagining, and at his heart an insecure fraud whose hopes are pinned to a woman".

[74] Tobey Maguire's role as Nick received mixed reviews from critics, with Philip French of The Guardian calling him "miscast or misdirected".

[75] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Tobey Maguire is his usual recessive presence, barely registering as either a dynamic part of the events he describes or their watchful witness",[76] and Elizabeth Weitzman of The New York Daily News opined that, despite "the wry-observational skills needed for Nick's Midwestern decency", the character is "directed toward a wide-eyed, one-note performance".

[77] Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail was more positive of Maguire's character, saying "our narrator, [is] prone to his occasionally purple rhetoric.

But that imposed conceit, the image of a talented depressive writing from inside the bauble of his imagination, seems to validate his inflated prose and, better yet, lets us re-appreciate its inherent poetry".