The Stylishly Anti-Period Period Piece

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2002)

Perhaps the greatest satisfaction as a movie watcher is a film that shatters all negative expectations for it. I came into "Moulin Rouge!" with a huge bias, due simply to the horrid cover of "Lady Marmalade" on MTV and the radio, which was my only exposure to the movie. Were it not for my friend's older sister reassuring me that the song was only in the actual movie for one sequence of a few minutes at most, I never would've seen it at all. I'm glad I listened to her, because this is a colorful, musical masterpiece, though at times its a little messy.
The cornerstone of "Moulin Rouge!", being a musical of sorts, is the music. Most of the film's musical numbers are not original, and are composed of resung samples from songs ranging from U2 to Elton John (its fun just trying to see how fast one can recognize the sample). While a few of these are cute, others are strange and/or just too much (the whole bit from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was so absurd I had to laugh, but the Madonna made me groan). Probably the best musical sequence is Fatboy Slim's hard hitting "Can Can" (although ironically enough, this is the aforementioned sequence with the dreaded "Lady Marmalade", luckily it is mostly drowned out by the beat) that looks and feels like a modern club. However, that is what makes most of these sequences so odd; why bother setting the film in 1900 as a period piece if the music and choreography totally remove it from that era?

Besides the music, the film's grand atmosphere comes from the stunning visuals. This is Baz Luhrmann at his best and every editor's worst nightmare; every club/rehearsal/play scene packs in enough color, lights, and costumes to put Cirque du Soleil to shame. Its not just that these scenes feature so many things going on, but that the collage of it all is put together so "efficiently"; most of the time it feels necessary, as opposed to just filler (there are still moments where the film seems more like a long string of music videos as opposed to a film, though not as many as I would've expected). On that rare occasion when a sequence turned out sloppy, however, all the overindulgence causes the film to cough up some awful cinematographic vomit (though this only happened once or twice to the point where it really bothered me, mostly from the camera jumping around and switching sequences too much). Unfortunately, since each sequence is so big (if anything, they get bigger and bigger throughout the film) all this simply adds up to too much to see and digest in just one viewing, so, as brilliant as they are, only the grandest of these grand sequences will leave an impression (but what an impression it is!).
Underneath all this style, amazingly enough, is a movie (albeit a weak one). Though the plot is cliche-ridden (the most disappointing thing about the movie) and obviously depends on its visual/audio sequences to keep interest (tons of style makes up for an almost total lack of substance), it is held afloat by some excellent supporting performances from Richard Roxburgh, Jim Broadbent, and whomever played Christian's eccentric Bohemian artist colleagues/neighbors. Though their acting wasn't lacking, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman should really be commended for their singing performances, which were much better than I could have ever hoped.
"Moulin Rouge!" was a pleasant surprise, but there is just too much to handle. Although I did enjoy it, its thorough lack of anything interesting in the plot (I had the whole thing telegraphed within the first half hour) and constant one-up-manship over itself will ensure that for repeated viewings its more worth it to just skip through and watch your favorite sequences (the aforementioned "Can Can" and the ending) again, rather than the whole film.