Wishing I'd seen Freddy Got Fingered instead

Rating: 1/10 (15 April 2002)

It is very suspicious situation when a director's last two movies are virtually stolen from the creative genius of others as Baz Luhrmann's Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and now Moulin Rouge can attest to. That said, Moulin Rouge was the type of theater experience in which your literally dying to go home and read the 6000 page War and Peace, read the entire 20,000 page IRS tax book, or rent the bottom 100 of all time film Freddy Got Fingered.
Nicole Kidman was visibly embarrassed when her selected scene as Satine was shown at the Academy Awards. And rightly so because the scene displayed exactly what she did throughout the entire Moulin Rouge debacle which was pant uncontrollably, fake orgasms, and lip synch songs that were better left behind to the forgettable 1980's. I'm not sure I've ever seen an actress nominated in a lead role for using so little dialogue. What an embarrasment to see Nicole Kidman contending with the likes of Halle Berry (she lifted Monster's Ball single-handedly to greatness) and Sissy Spacek (A difficult role for a gifted actress in In the Bedroom). And a word of advice to Ewan McGregor-you were miscast here and you'd be wise to stick to better roles like the one you had in Trainspotting.
The most notorious thing I noticed in Moulin Rouge was how much I cringed in embarrassment for the gifted Jim Broadbent as a pimp daddy of sorts. This grandfather and Academy Award winner has always picked good roles (excellent British comedy shows, Bridget Jone's Diary, Iris) and why he relented to Baz Luhrmann I'll never know. I can only surmise that he is desperately trying to pay the mortgage on his 15- million dollar brownstone and was forced to stoop to this level. If only the relentless camera hadn't been so motivated to capture his oddly made-up face quite so closely.
Whoever signed off on virtually making a mockery of Kurt Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" better be prepared to hear it from Kurt in heaven. I thought Madonna was smart enough to sell her songs to the highest bidder with some class, but she must have thought that Moulin Rouge reminded her of the good ole' days when she wore those pathetic cone bras and thought the world bowed only to her.
Moulin Rouge has an awfully high rating of 8.7 on the IMBD and I can only surmise that a bunch of little Brittany Spears-wannabe 10 year old's voted about a 100 times each. Never has a film stolen so much from previous songs, previous movies, previous musicals, and called itself inventive and inspired. The only thing inventive is the gold-digging scheme undertaken by Baz Luhrmann to produce and direct trash and market it as real art.
If you want to watch a film that reinvented the musical with a classic work (Romeo and Juliet) but original songs, go rent the amazing West Side Story (1961) starring the deceased but incredible Natalie Wood. Not only is it a piece on race but it's a new idea. And yes, it thankfully lacks a slowly turning red wind mill.