A moderate improvement over Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2001)

I wasn't expecting much of Moulin Rouge when I first walked into the theatre, having been dragged across town to the theatre by some friends. I simply despised Baz Luhrmann's previous film, the modern adaptation of Romeo + Juliet; I found that he simply took too many liberties with the script and tried a bit too hard to appeal to my generation. So, one can imagine my surprise when a friend of mine called 35 minutes before a showing of Moulin Rouge was to start to announce that he was picking me up to go see it. Well, $10.00 (damned Canadian ticket prices) and two hours later, I was suitably impressed with it.
Not surprisingly, the visuals in Moulin Rouge are outstanding. The art direction seems to be far more sophisticated than in R&J, and it really adds to the mesmerizing effect that the film has. The choreography is also outstanding. Surprisingly, the modern songs used in the musical numbers really worked in a queer way - After Jim Broadbent's "Like a Virgin" number, easily the best in my opinion, the audience spontaneously erupted in a frenzy of applause. However, the best thing about Moulin Rouge is the script. Which sucked. Really sucked. How, you ask, it is the script the best part of this movie? Simply put, because the script was so trite, so predictable, so blatantly "heartbreaking", one doesn't need to focus on it; rather, we're all so swept up in the quick cutting and fast-passed visuals that we really don't care about it. Furthermore, Moulin Rouge solves one of the issues that I had about R&J - because I don't care about Moulin Rouge's script, there's no need for me to complain about it. I don't care what Luhrmann did to the script because it doesn't matter to me. All in all, Moulin Rouge was one of the better movies that I've seen in awhile. Don't expect any Oscar performances (though Ewan McGregor had a stunning singing voice- much to my surprise) or writing, but if you liked the visual appeal of Luhrmann's R&J and Strictly Ballroom, give this one a shot.