Am I the only person who simply *HATED* this movie?

Rating: 1/10 (16 January 2002)

I have read so many posts on this message board concerning the adoration and delight people have expressed for "MOULIN ROUGE", for both its usage of creativity and for its stars, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. I skipped seeing this film when it was playing at the movies but my curiosity was spiked by the time it hit the video rental shelves at my local video store.
"MOULIN ROUGE" has indeed garnered much favoritism from critic's circles, award panels and esteemed film reviewers alike. Unfortunately, the only award I would hand this film would be a Golden Raspberry.
The opening sequence of "MOULIN ROUGE" was interesting enough. I enjoyed the camera sequence going through the city of old Paris as we are introduced to Ewan McGregor's character... and then the film pretty much falls flat on its face from thereon in.
I am not Nicole Kidman's biggest fan. I did enjoy her in "THE OTHERS", but I have to say that her performance in this film would be about on par as that in "BMX BANDITS" or "BUSH CHRISTMAS". I thought the musical pieces in "MOULIN ROUGE" were 'ear-bleedingly' awful, especially the sequence where both Ewan and Nicole are serenading each other with snippets of songs such as "I Was Made For Loving You" and "Silly Love Songs". There is one truly awful moment in the film that involves a man screeching out an unforgivable horrendous rendition of The Police's "Roxanne".
It was about the scene where John Leguizamo and his side-kicks gate-crash Ewan McGregor's personal home-warming to have him join their performing art troupe where Ewan finds himself bellowing out a sonnet of "The Hills Are Alive" from "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" that I found myself losing patience for this movie. My nerves and patience at that point were already at razor's edge. A special appearance by Kylie Minogue as 'The Green Fairy' in a 'Tinkerbell'-type role was the final straw for me.
I shifted myself to the next room to work on the computer and for the next two hours, all I heard was non-stop 'yahooing' and music that resembled the sound a tin bucket would make after it was kicked down an endless flight of stairs. Towards the end, I was wondering aloud, "Please! Make the hurting stop!" The two other people I live with had already secretly exited the living room behind my back to escape the noise.
I know that Nicole Kidman's main professional talent is targeted mainly towards acting. It is not a fair suggestion on my behalf to opine that she should work harder on the acting and leave the 'singing' thing alone altogether.
I was very disappointed with this movie. For all the fabulous write-up it has been receiving from famous reviewers and everyday people like you and I, I was expecting a great deal more from "MOULIN ROUGE". I really REALLY wanted to like "MOULIN ROUGE", but I just couldn't get into it. Please don't accuse me of having a narrow mind because I am a very open-minded person when it comes to film projects. I am sure that Baz Luhrmann had a well-planned artistic dream when he put this film together. Unfortunately for me, it turned out to be one long nightmare. One reviewer on this web-site mentioned that they are "in love" with Moulin Rouge. I guess my motto would be, "I hate Moulin Rouge".
My Rating: 1 out of 10