A dog

Rating: Null/10 (18 September 2001)

I'm shocked at the rapturous reception this film has received here, but I suppose its one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies. I hated it, and found it very patronising - the number of obvious cultural reference points which are supposed to be oh-so-clever was particularly grating. Even the much-touted energy of the film was actually little more than swift and disjunctive montage, as opposed to smooth and continuous editing. What splendour there may have been in the sets and costumes was lost in the rush to usher in the next image. And was there a point to the whole enterprise? To revive the musical. Why? Because people don't make musicals anymore. So says Luhrmann. Of course people don't make musicals anymore, simply because its an outdated genre that doesn't suit our times, but at least the best musicals from the 30s to the 50s had a point, something to say within their musical framework. They reworked old tunes in the same way that this film eschews original lyrics in favour of "pop" classics. And they deployed all available technologies to stage enormous dance spectaculars to show off the talent of the human performers. Moulin Rouge uses techniques to hide the fact that its leads can't dance and are miming single lines at a time - there are no long takes for them to give a real performance. This is a movie about how they don't make movies like they used to. It proves its own point by its own failure. And Ewan McGregor is the most overrated actor of his generation. And he can't sing.