This is the best musical since My Fair Lady!

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2001)

This is the best musical since My Fair Lady! In the pop culture tradition of the best postmodern fiction, it is endlessly self-referential, and delightfully merges just about every cultural reference imaginable with each of their antecedents. Madonna and Monroe are unified in a psuedo-drag number that objectifies every drag queen who ever did the same to the originals. And oh, those songs! From the Material Girl to the Rocket Man, and everything in between, with totally acceptable performances by all involved. If you love good music, you'll love some of the best all over again as you see it in a context you never imagined.
Ewan McGregor is absolutely enchanting as the young writer attempting to break into the Paris arts circle that inhabits the Moulin Rouge. He infuses his character with warmth and sincerity that makes him by far the most endearing character on film in recent memory, and in a world not gone mad, would all but guarantee him the Oscar this year. In a surprise trick casting, we have Nicole Kidman as an ambitious whore who compensates for meager talent by her willingness to enter a sham relationship in exchange for fame and fortune. Where does she find her inspiration? She reaches somewhere inside and finds something to make it work, and work it does in far and away her best role since she was again surprisingly cast as a scheming conniving bitch in Malice. They just keep coming out of the blue.
There isn't a single cast member who isn't stellar, and the pace and density of the production, although at times a little trying, is an embarrassment of riches. Watch for John Leguizamo's touching speech about love as the unloved Toulouse Lautrec. He should be getting much bigger and better roles, and maybe this will open some doors.
Although a must own on the eventual DVD, this is also a big-screen experience that cannot be missed. It is everything a great musical should be, and everything all great musicals have been, all rolled into one. An absolute treasure.