Overkill of lights, fast cameras and tasteless music

Rating: 1/10 (8 July 2003)

First of all; I love music. Music isn't just a hobby for me, its a passion. Moulin Rouge is the single most terrible musical experience I've had. And yes, I enjoy most different types of quality music. The music of MR has been praised as innovative and exciting, but I have to disagree. The songs have been chosen by only one criteria; to be as easy for the audience as possible. It seems that any interesting songs, if there was any, have been dismissed in the pre-production stage in fear of losing audience. There was not one single song that would've surprised me in the movie. And yes, changing the words so they are aligned with the plot is one of the oldest tricks in the book. The fact that Moulin Rouge has been compared to some of the real musicals of our era is sickening. At least they tried to compose something new for the audience before...
The plot was 90% predictable. The last 10% is made out of the scenes, which reach even deeper into the syrup than I thought was humanly possible. And when the music/dancing scenes were not powerful enough, hey, it's not a problem. By the rules of Moulin Rouge, there isn't a problem that couldn't be fixed by adding another 10 million light bulbs and flashlights, 50 extra dancers and perhaps a modulation in the song. Sorry, doesn't fix it for me.

Third of all, Nicole Kidman is beautiful, but in my opinion she really wasn't convincing as the beauty queen of Moulin Rouge.

All in all, except for the overkill of lights, fast cameras and tasteless music, Moulin Rouge didn't show anything we hadn't seen (as better versions) before. This movie surely was an unique experience for me, and I don't want to have that experience again...ever.