Inane tragedy, and boring, too.

Rating: 3/10 (2 June 2001)

When I went to see Moulin Rouge, I was expecting it to be many things, visually magnificent, a tragic love story, musically splendid, etc. But more than any of these things, it turned out to be... goofy. Go figure. Following a Bohemian poet, Christian's (a boring Ewan McGregor) journey through the underworld of the nightclub/bordello Moulin Rouge and his disastrous romance with its biggest star Satine (an embarrassing Nicole Kidman) proves to be, of course, a Luhrmann feast for the eyes, but generally lacking in substance. The movie is told through flashbacks as Christian tries to recall the story of his life for the past few months. Since entering Paris, he has met and befriended a wide array of Bohemian artsy types, such as a directorial midget with a speech impediment known as Toulouse Lautrec, (played by a desperate John Leguizamo), a meaty ringmaster, Harold Ziedler, (an inconsistent Broadbent) who owns the Moulin Rouge, and the only hilarious character in the film, a narcoleptic Argentinian (played to indulgent perfection by Jacek Koman). Our somewhat charismatic hero is immediately thrust into writing a musical production, which he bases on his own love battle for Satine with the rich underwriter of the production, the Duke, played by Richard Roxburgh in an acting approach more one-sided than Rambo. Through all this, Luhrmann interweaves plot gimmicks stolen directly from Shakespeare in Love, a visual atmosphere that assaults the senses and actually crosses the line I never thought Luhrmann could cross, that of over extravagance. Too many quick cuts and fast speeds alienate the viewer and can't draw the audience's attention away from the general cheesy air of a cardboard production. All this, the plastic performances, the poor humor, and worse romance could be excused as a mediocre production, were it not for the million silly references to pop culture which not only fail to amuse, but also place the audience out of the movie. From Christian singing Celine Dion to a ridiculous dance version of Madonna's Like A Virgin, these devices disappoint and reduce the entire film to a shallow joke.