Worth dancing over

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2001)

SPOILER ALERT Moulin Rouge; where the old and rich go to dance with the young and the beautiful. Well, perhaps, not all so very young, and not all beautiful, but wild looking in any case. That, which starts with the drawing of the red curtain, soon turns into a swirl of skirts and colored doll faces as Christian enters that wild sacred realm. At first the unsuspecting audience is sure to feel much of the same confusion as the poetical hero. Peeping colored faces poking out of a hole in the ceiling; sexy green fairies; clowns; a hyperactive short guy; a hyperactive tall mean guy; a hyperactive pimp stile boss; some hyperactive swirls of skirt. Hyperactive faces; hyperactive redhead making love to a blanket; hyperrrr r r And just when one thought the movie would swirl away into oblivion till the end all slows down and tis time for a love song, and then another, and then the story is on. Does the hyperactiveness return, by all means, but by that time one is ready for it and does not feel like they are hit on the head continually with a diamond covered gold bat. Now We break it down.
Story- is very unoriginal, the most unoriginal element about all of this movie, in fact. (possible spoiler) Boy meets girl, boy and girl from different ends of the meat rack of life, boy loves girl, girl loves boy, another boy loves girl who is from her side of the meat rack, girl chooses love boy number 1, something happens to make girl choose the other nasty bad boy but does not tell our hero why she does. Girl inevitably chooses hero boy and they live happily ever after, ups... Well, no, actually this is the other variation where the girl dies and the boy lives on to tell about it (think Titanic). Obviously, the movie is a love story plain and simple like many others, so what is special about this one? Filming/art- is absolutely exquisite. The hyperactiveness defiantly works to catch one's attention even if one hates it all along they are sure to be windswept by it. Wonderful effects such as the black and whitish beginning that all of a sudden gains color. The life is like oxygen speech comes on and Ups! Confused face on Christian, guy drops though roof, it turns into a comedy of sorts! All this being very very well filmed the whole wile. Alright, so, when it does slow down by the end, say, after the tango scene, (SPOILER) one starts to think to oneself, alright, die already. Let me just tell you, Satine does not die until it is obvious she is going to, so do not fight! But, enough of that. Music: is very very nicely put together. Moulin Rouge seems to capture within itself all the popular music of the 20th century and mixes it up within each other to present it in a surprisingly tasteful blend. Some songs are especially amusing to listen to for they surely parody the original (ahm, Like a Virgin). Verdict? Even though the plot is not original, the love plot never is. Simply put, this movie did all it possibly could have out of a very obvious plot line, both where acting was concerned, artistically, and in filming, they even mixed in a little comedy which was a big surprise to myself. If you like colorful swirling movies, watch it, If you are a very old couple walking on stilts between mortality and death and get a heart attack at the drop of a hat (or the throw of a hat) stay away from this one and continue with the every day Days Of Our Lives.