Shallow

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2002)

« Moulin Rouge! » is, unlike many main stream and commercial movie lovers might have told you, a waste of time. With directing that looks more like what you would see in a stupid MTV video, those who've seen the awful video for the main song of this film (sung by the biggest amount of prostitutes put under the title of singers I've seen reunited together!), « Moulin Rouge! » doesn't bring anything new, except maybe another Blockbuster hit that will please to average North American families and make millions at the Box-Office... How amazing
Right, the film itself is a musical that, by the way, features lots of remakes of very popular and modern songs, and doesn't deliver at all any other feeling or atmosphere you will see in masterpieces such as « Singin' In The Rain », which is a great musical. I know it is not happening in the same period of time, and it wasn't made in the same period of time, but the really disgusting aspect of it that really upsets me, especially when I think about all the nominations it got for Oscars (these guys are getting even harder to trust every year!) is the really shallow display of everything in this film. The film itself simply looks like a TV commercial that tries to sell you how beautiful the costumes are, how happy the characters are, how sad someone's death is, how much knowledge they have (Wow! They even know what Absinthe is! These guys have culture, have they?UH? And I can prove that this is not a typical American film, yes I can prove it, because it has references to foreign cultures and some characters have weird accents that sound less natural than Arnie's American accent in Commando!) and they really try hard to create an atmospherebut fail big time! There is nothing magic in all this mess, except maybe for this hypnotized, shallow generation of MTV fans that know absolutely nothing about cinema and think they have cinematic culture because they saw "Titanic".
(Spoilers coming up)	Nicole Kidman's death in the film is truly one of the least sad ones I've ever seen, and if someone cried for this, they should definitely not see a REALLY emotional film. Kidman's character was not likeable at all, and I'd say that in « Moulin Rouge! », not unlike many other of her films, Kidman's performance is like a fashion showshe just wants all the attention on the screen, she wants to be the showisn't thathumshallow? Indeed. Her character is a big cliche and is explicitly unidimensional. Ewan MacGregor is good, he's Ewan MacGergor after all, and he's a great actor and he has the most interesting role in this movie. John Leguizamo's not bad either. But, again, the characters are pretty slightly developed, and the director spent more time showing his « beautiful » plastic dresses and costumes and playing boring songs and putting them in boring music video-like sequences rather than doing essential things for his film.
An overall pretty empty film, with nothing but average, shallow entertainment that is the equivalent of two hours of MTV videos with better actingNot very surprising it got nominations for Oscars, because these days only good taste is accepted and typical American films (very formulatic in many cases!) are privileged. So, I know I may have been a little severe with this film, but it really is the definition of the word « SHALLOW »maybe that's why this word appeared so many times in my review. If you spend your days watching MTV, and if you cry when you watch teen movies, this might be for youBut if you're looking for something that goes deeper than skin, plastic, and absolutely not touching love stories, you'll be deceived. This is a better version of « Glitter » with better intentions (OUCH! That's a big punch in Mariah's face!) and a setting in the past. Oh yeah, and Ewan MacGregor and John Leguizamo's performances are good (this time I won't compare it to « Glitter », because there is truly a difference for this point.and again, your side's not the bright one, Mariahyou don't « glitter » that much, you know), but don't save this film. Watch « Singin' In The Rain » insteadthat is a great musical. I give « Moulin Rouge! » 4/10.