Hyperkinetic

Rating: 3/10 (29 July 2002)

Chanteuse in late 1890s Paris mistakes a Bohemian songwriter for a wealthy Duke; they fall in love anyway. Strictly as a piece of eye-candy, "Moulin Rouge!" is a stunning cinematic achievement; alas, it is also full of inappropriate music and characters so manic they lose any appeal the actors might have brought to the slim material. It is visually inventive but absolutely devoid of passion, and so mechanically cranked-up to grab you by the eyeballs that it fails to come together on an emotional level. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor--everyone in the cast, in fact--is game and energetic to a fault, but after 90 minutes I'd had enough. The film's major conceit (pop and rock songs injected into a period setting) never quite gels, and as for the characters...who cares? *1/2 from ****