Style over substance

Rating: 2/10 (23 November 2004)

After 2 minutes into this movie we know we will have to totally suspend our belief, ignore the actors and just let the cameraman and editor get on with it. However after 5 minutes just like after eating a big fat cream pie we've had enough and we wish that there will be period whereby the story will take over just like in any good musical.
No such luck we're dealing with a director who is very keen in showing us how much references he can squeeze into one movie. The actors don't help very much either. Whispering Nicole Kidman can't avoid looking like a porcelain doll, Ewan McGregor again doesn't seem to care very much (has he ever performed well in a big budget movie?) and the Toulouse Lautrec character might as well be a prop in a porn movie.
The love message is hammered into our heads towards the end, as if we shouldn't complain, it's a love story after all, shucks. The last half hour is one long wait for Nicole to die. Let's hope there isn't a Moulin Rouge 2 where her daughter shows up in a fake New York with moody clouds, a token Andy Warhol and a struggling poet who can compose hip-hop songs.