| . |
"Moulin Rouge"
(Reviewed May 14, 2001)
-
What a pretty mess. This definitely ranks as the very best looking of the worst movies I've ever seen. The production design and cinematography are absolutely beautiful, in a gaudy, glitzy, ultra-Technicolor-brothel fashion, with literally hundreds of amazing effects shots. (I'm just waiting for one of those pathetic quote whores like Peter Travers or Rex Reed to dub this "the Matrix of musicals.")
Also, Nicole Kidman is undeniably beautiful (if a tad icy), in numerous elaborate costumes that out-Vegas Vegas. Plus she and costar Ewan MacGregor allegedly did all of their own singing in "Moulin Rouge," and the results are more than adequate. (Although one often has to wonder, "Is it them, or is it ProTools?")
But the script, the direction, the pacing...ye gods, what a disaster. The movie's gimmick is that characters regularly break into song. Unfortunately, most of the songs they break into don't survive the assault. Nearly all are "classic rock" tunes, mostly from the 1970s and '80s. This "rockin' to the anachronisms" device is not as poorly or cynically employed as in the egregiously unwatchable "A Knight's Tale," but the result is the same: Both movies feel very "camped up," corny and clumsy. Trust me, you never will want to hear Elton John's "Your Song" again in your life, after hearing it over and over and OVER in this movie. Each time you think the characters finally have flogged the poor tune to death, it pops up yet again!
Worst of all, numerous elements of the script that are supposed to be comedic are painfully, unbearably unfunny. The movie's very first scene, in which would-be writer McGregor's flat is invaded by fast-talking Toulouse-Lautrec and his band of incredibly annoying eccentrics, is the kind of manic and stupid barrage that makes you want to run screaming for the lobby. Later, when Jim Broadbent (as Moulin Rouge owner Zidler) and Richard Roxburgh (as Kidman's evil suitor The Duke) serenade each other with Madonna's "Like a Virgin," you will wonder if you have descended into some unbearable hell presided over by Rip Taylor and Charles Nelson Reilly.
The direction is maddeningly frustrating. Baz Luhrmann's insistence on ruining every song and dance number with hundreds of one- and two-second takes makes it nearly impossible to enjoy the splendors that are on display. You think you've seen fast cutting in MTV videos? Most of this movie is like MTV on speed. Every time you start to catch a glimpse of something that deserves a long, lingering look, you may rely on the fact that it will be yanked from view before it can be allowed to fully register on your consciousness. Nearly the entire movie plays like a chopped-up trailer for a movie.
Pacing-wise, we find out far too early that a certain character is, as they say, Not Long For This World. Several musical numbers start and stop so jerkily that it becomes impossible to let the songs "carry you away." And a climactic death scene drags on for a couple of eternities.
Okay, so with all of these complaints, why am I giving this movie a "C" grade instead of my usual big, fat "F"? Because at least it TRIED to be something different and, god forbid, "artistic." Every now and then, it even succeeds. If nothing else, you never will forget the unique look of this movie, where many scenes are so saturated with dazzling hues that the colors nearly drip from the screen.
Plus any movie that has the luminous Kylie Minogue as a Tinkerbell-style Green Fairy, flying into a starry sky from an Absinthe label to sing a few brief seconds of "The Sound of Music," can't be all bad.
Back Row Grade: C
(Return to Index)
|
. |