Visually stunning and inventive, cool soundtrack and great love story  but John Leguizamo's cartoon antics must go...

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2002)

English writer Christain finds himself introduced to the heady pleasures of the Moulin Rouge burlesque and to the fabulous beauty of the tragic Satine. Christian finds himself in a case of mistaken identify when Satine seduces him instead of the Duke (the potential backer for Satine's chance to star in a play). Before the mistake is realised Christian is in love and must struggle with envy while Satine plays along with the Duke in return for his money. But will love win out?
Maybe I suffered from the hype but I was a tad disappointed in this film. At the heart it has a beautiful love story between Satine and Christian which has added spice due to her commitment to the Duke and her potential death from consumption. This side of the story plays well but the rest of it is almost like a cartoon. The cartoon/comedy side is fun too but it takes away from the love story.
The director is great  he did it with Romeo & Juliet and he does it here. He has such an imagination and the film is a real joy to watch  so clever, so inventive. But he has also allowed characters in that create a cartoon feel  Toulouse-Lautrec and his fellow actors are prime examples. I found that this took away from my enjoyment slightly as it pushed some scenes from being imaginative and different into being silly.
That said I still enjoyed the film. The central story is fantastic and visually it is amazing. The music is superb as well  going from one style to the next, with absurd scenes to beautiful scenes (`Your Song' is my favourite scene, I could watch it 100 times!). Occasionally it doesn't work but it is audacious in the attempt.
The cast are mostly great. Kidman and McGregor are both on top form and aquit themselves well  both in the singing and the acting stakes. Jim Broadbent is good value as Harold, the club owner and Roxburgh gives a wonderfully smarmy performance as the Duke. John Leguizamo was good in Romeo & Juliet, and Lurman should have left it there  nobody can get two good performances out of this guy. His cartoon antics don't seem out of place in the first half of the film  but when the mood changes he is left mugging and being irritating. He has some good moments  but I really think that the guy needs to only do serious roles until he loses that irritating habit of mugging.
Overall I thought this was a brave, inventive film that has a wonderful story at it's heart. However it is maybe hyped too much and I found that the cartoon antics of some of the characters were irritating rather than involving. But I still really enjoyed it!