Breathtaking

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2001)

Ultra-romantic, operatic in the grandeur of its ambitions, gorgeous to look at, musically astounding, witty and exuberant, endlessly inventive, and loads of fun, Moulin Rouge floored me. I don't think I have enjoyed a movie as much since my childhood, meaning that it transported me out of this world into its own unique universe the way Saturday matinees (didn't matter what was playing) did when I was a child. (This is not to claim that Moulin Rouge is as great as, let's say, Grand Illusion; but there are different kinds of masterpieces.) Kidman and McEwan are both splendid and of course both are splendid to look at. The supporting cast is uniformly superb, John Leguizamo especially endearing as Toulouse Lautrec. Sets, costumes are a delight. The film's musical director and whoever did the orchestrations/arrangements should both win the Nobel Prize in Music (if there were such a prize); musically Moulin Rouge is an absolute tour-de-force. I certainly can understand why some people might hate this movie (those, for example, with no sense of romance or humor; or those who find opera or, say, musical theatre, inherently ridiculous). And I know it's a much over-used word . . . but Baz Luhrmann is clearly a genius.