Unrelentingly bad ego trip

Rating: 1/10 (10 August 2001)

I went to see "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" with high expectations considering the critical reception it has received from the press. But of course, the press loved "My Dinner With Andre" and "The Incredible Lightness of Being"...2 movies that were unmitigated disasters as far as I'm concerned.
Those two movies were boring. Hedwig is not. It is a glitzy, noisy, vacuous rock musical about an East Berlin kid castrated to gain entry to the United States as a sort of war bride and then abandoned by his/her husband in Kansas only to become a second rate rock star. All this might have made an interesting, charasmatic drama, but as a musical it is a disaster. The score of rock songs is unremittingly loud and monochromatic and except for the song "Origin of Love", there is not a memorable tune anywhere. 80% of the movie is outlandish, sometimes over the top performances of these awful songs. You just sit there waiting...and hoping they'll be over soon. Some critics have compared "Hedwig" to the "Rocky Picture Horror Show". That movie/show had a great score. This does not and a musical without a score isn't worth a damn.
The second unfortunate realization is that the entire project (and I presume the off broadway stage production on which it based) is a massive, self indulgent ego trip for its star, writer and director. The kid's got a lot of talent with which he energetically assaults this dreadful material. If there was a decent score, a great screenplay and a seasoned director, he'd be brilliant.
So it's not boring. The production values are fun as far as it goes. Yeah, the wigs are fun. BIG DEAL! When the film is over you don't give a hoot for Hedwig or what he/she has been through. There is little application of wit and a heavy dose of maudlin tripe.
Sorry folks. If you want a recent movie musical with some MUSIC, see Moulin Rouge.