Two Thumbs Up

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2008)

Having watched Moulin Rouge a few times it has begun to grow on me in a good way, I have no idea why but I have a thing for musicals at the moment staring actors who don't usually sing, for example Moulin Rouge (Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman) and Mamma Mia (Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth) I think it may be because its funny listening to them sing when they are not natural musicians or I could like it because its something different to what you hear in the charts today which is probably the reason why I have grown attached to these films. One thing I didn't mention at the start was that the singing and acting from the two main roles of Nicole and Ewan went together perfectly, especially in the "Elephant Medley" scene their voices merged together beautifully with the addition of some great 20th century classics like "your song" by Elton John and "I will always love you" by Whitney Houston. They turned these classics into great new songs by doing mixing them together along with other great songs from the 20th century. This film is a superb example of musical film in the form of a tragic love story where the penniless Writer "Christian" (McGregor) is deprived of his (burlesque dancer) secret lover "Satine" (Kidman) right at the end of the film just when they thought they were about to live happily ever after. It is enough to bring a tear to the eyes of some however I did not. Overall I think Baz Luhrmann has exceeded himself as a director with this film and I believe it will go on to be a musical classic.