A Gilded Turd

Rating: 1/10 (14 June 2001)

I, like many others, am drawn in by beauty. And, with Romeo&Juliet and Strictly Ballroom being two remarkable movies, I thought, "This one is going to be great." I purposely stayed away from reviews until I could get to the theatre.
Much to my dismay, the movie held much contempt for its audience. Nicole Kidman wanted nothing more than to display her talents and executed a terribly shallow role of a character that was very complex.
Toulouse-Lautrec was reduced to a caricature of a dwarf with a speech impediment, when in truth he was the embodiment of Montmarte's bohemian scene. It was he who brought artists out of the church and into the newly invented method of mass production and made their art the icons of the age! He was at the center of a movement that later spawned the Beats, the Hippies, and all other degenerates who brilliantly create the words, art, music and theatre of their generations.
The fact that the producers spent so much money to give the movie such visual splendor and so little on making it an important piece of art is a perfect representation of a lot of over-budgeted movies today. Couldn't the script have been clever, not trite? Couldn't they have used actual music from the period and given it a modern beat instead of using Elton John and Nirvana? Couldn't they decide whether the movie should be a farce or a drama, instead of something confusing in between? Couldn't the cast embrace the history of their roles (Zidler was great) and then create intelligent satire?
I am so disappointed in this movie. I think I'll make myself feel better about the state of film making and go see Shreck.