A Complete Showstopper!

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2001)

I got this movie for Christmas and watched it four times in two days. Then I watched the director's commentary, the behind the red curtain featurette, the making of..., the star interviews, the HBO special, the music videos, and the promotional material before watching the whole thing again for a fifth time. And then I bought the soundtrack.
What I'm getting at here is that you'll either hate this movie or become obsessed with it. The movie is a package of brillant colors, whimsical costumes, catchy showtunes, and heart-wrenching emotion. It takes place at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, 1899, at the height of the Bohemian era and dance-hall scenes. Nicole Kidman plays Satine, a courtesan and star of the shows; Ewan McGregor plays Christian, a penniless writer who falls in love with her. There's an evil duke, an opportunistic owner, a piano player with four hands, a green fairy (Kylie Minogue!), a narcoleptic actor, and the dwarf artist Toulouse-Latrec (Leguizamo, on his knees the entire time).
If that weren't zany enough, the songs are modern songs reworked into a dance-club/showtune extravaganza. Christian stands on top of a 60-foot elephant, trying to convince Satine to love him, when all of a sudden he belts, "Feels a little bit fuuuunny, this feeling insiiiidee..." Did I just hear Elton John? Was the owner just singing to the duke "Like a Virgin"? I guarantee you'll get a chuckle out of a can-can version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and a tango set to "Roxanne", which incidentally, involved 60 dancing couples. Bring it on!
Director Baz Luhrmann explains that he likes to tell stories using a device; in his previous work it was through dance (Strictly Ballroom), iambic pentameter (Romeo+Juliet), and here in song. Who knew Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor could sing? And I mean really sing; there's more emotion in some of their 30-second ballads than in all of some movies. The film is as crazy as it sounds, with one second being entirely funny and the next tear-jerking. All of the characters are just that; the look and feel of this production takes you right to the Moulin Rouge of yesterday--it's like you are part of the play yourself. If I could sum up this flick in any other way, I'd compare it to hitting a big gaudy cinematic pinata and having all the great film tricks fall out; you'll find yourself surrounded by pure eye candy.