Left Me Cold-Does That Mean I Lack Passion?

Rating: 3/10 (8 February 2002)

I didn't feel any emotions besides annoyance and discomfort during the two times-I gave it a second chance-that I saw "Moulin Rouge". I didn't feel the love and passion other people said they felt.
I think the reason I didn't feel anything was because, to me, this movie is not even about the love which the characters preach so much about. First of all, the movie is more about jealousy than love. Jealousy represented in the silly and incredibly stupid Duke, idealistic Christian, and the prostitute that exposes the two lovers. Secondly, the word "love" is constantly used in vain in this movie. It is used to impress. Characters cherish inflated ideas of its importance. The John Leguizamo character keeps on using it to boast how he and other bohemians are so much better than others because they believe in "love." I agree with the other viewer who commented on "the blissfully ignorant use of...the word love" and mentioned the line from "The Princess Bride" ("I do not think you know what that word means"). It seemed as if the movie makers made the characters say the word "love" over and over again, so that if they repeated it enough the movie would be about love.
False love at the sake of art does not champion love at all. "Moulin Rouge" is no true "champion" for the love which is supposed to be its theme.