About every 25 years, the cinema has a go at F Scott Fitzgerald's almost unfilmable story about the mysterious millionaire with a suspected dark past who lives in his Long Island mansion, staring out at the Sound and looking destiny enigmatically in the face.

Successive generations of bland charmers - Warner Baxter in 1926, Alan Ladd in 1949 and Robert Redford here - have attempted the title role. The tangled mess of past loves and continuing deceptions - involving wealthy Daisy (Mia Farrow) and her husband Tom (Bruce Dern) is observed here by Sam Waterson, giving a fine supporting performance as Nick Carraway, the businessman renting the cottage near the mansion who gets drawn into the web of intrigue.

The direction and production design perfectly capture the flavour of the post-World War One period in which the film is set.

But they also tend to make the film so rarefied as to squeeze the life force out of it, detracting from the excellent portrayals of Waterson, Dern, Karen Black (as the ill-fated Myrtle) and Scott Wilson (as Myrtle's hapless husband, George).

You'll also spot Howard Da Silva, who was in the 1949 version before being blacklisted for alleged Communist connections. Scott Wilson has Da Silva's old role this time. The costumes and set decorations are breathtaking.