A tragic emotional film

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2006)

I was recently invited to a movie night at my friends house, and when I heard we were going to watch Moulin Rouge I was horrified.
"A musical?" I thought, "don't make me gag." But as I started watching the movie, I realized how tragic the story really was. After the initial laughter and dancing, I began to feel a stirring behind my eyes as I watched true love being played out in a heart-breaking manner.
Ewan McGregor was spectacular in this film, bringing just the right amount of sensitivity to a very hard role to play. He managed to come off as both jealous and heart-broken when Satine goes to sleep with the Duke, which I find would be very hard to pull off.
But the true star of this movie is undoubtedly Nicole Kidman as Satine. She is sultry yet vulnerable and innocent in her role, and she was the one that truly made me start to tear up. The expressions she went through as she learned she was dying were subtle yet so emotionally powerful.
The only complaint I have about this film, is that they seem to love piling tragic incidents on top of one another without leaving us room for a breather.
It goes from hide love, love is found out, love is killed off, love is regained, love is killed off again, love is regained again, love is killed off again, love is regained, and then finally to love is gone when Satine dies.
It seems to go a bit too fast, but that doesn't hinder the story very much. The ending is still just as tragic and moving.
I'd recommend this story to just about anyone...well, anyone but insensitive idiots with the emotional range of a spoon. :3