CAN U CAN CAN

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2001)

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this movie. I will say this much for Bazz Luhrmann. The man is a stickler for detail. You may remember his directing style from `Romeo and Juliet'. He's a very vibrant director and very quick with the camera movements. Bazz directs movies to keep you on your feet and Moulin Rouge does just that. The movie starts out with a very lamented version of Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy and before you know it, you are drop kicked in to the world of the Moulin Rouge a spicy night club with every color in the sin spectrum with movements and pictures that are very Tex Avery in style. In my opinion, Moulin Rouge is a stroke of genius because it was told as a turn of the century demented fairytale where the juvenile and ingenue didn't live happily ever after. This is a movie to both love and hate. You love it because it is very funny, it uses popular music, therefore you can relate to it, it's about the one emotion that we all can't live without, and the fact that Ewan plays his character so down to earth that you cant help but relate to him. You hate it for a few reasons. Movie musicals and stage musicals share a common hate: they're not natural. You don't break into song in mid conversation to get your point across (wouldn't that be annoying) in normal conversation. Some guys will hate this film because it literally drips with love. The word is used more than any other word in the musical, the set design is littered with hearts and even Nicole's costumes have beaded work in the shape of hearts.
Luhrmann did a great job of mixing the elements of musical theater and motion picture to create this movie. Some have said that he was on a mission to reinvent the movie musical. If that is true, he is definitely on his way. So let's ask ourselves a question, why does this work and Evita didn't. Moulin Rouge reaches for that which is popular in society and reduces it to a certain level of humanity (which can be found in Ewan's performance and by the way, I am not slamming Evita at all and I love you Madonna, may you live for ever). Evita did it but lacked the portal of popular music and insanity to deliver it. Being that Christian was a poet, the dialogue is written that way. This could be a problem if it isn't handled right but the cast (mainly Ewan) handles it brilliantly.
I will say the same thing for this movie as I said about A Knights Tale before I saw it: Will the recent music work? YES IT DOES and what's cool about it is that the actors ease into the songs and if you're not paying attention, you will miss it. For example, when Zidler tell the Duke that Satine has sought the cleansing words of a priest before she offers herself up to him, he is charged on by the Duke. He immediately starts the lyrics to `Like a Virgin' by Madonna. I watched this in a theater that sat five-hundred people and I was the only one laughing. The other patrons looked at me like I was crazy, then they got it. Were the patrons that stupid? No, Broadbent was that good. Yet there was one dumb guy in the theatre that made the eloquently dumb statement `What was plot of this movie?' HELLO....the plot was given three times in the movie: 1) The love story itself 2) The plot of the play that was financially supported by the Duke 3) In the raunchy and growling version of Tango De Roxanne (yes the sting version)
Now we must ask ourselves a question. Was this a love story written around popular music or popular music draped around a love story. I'll let you figure this one out.
The actors make this movie work. Most of the acclaim has to go to McGregor for his excellent portrayal as the love ignorant poet in search of a muse. I loved him in Velvet Goldmine. He's just a fantastic actor and surprisingly a wonderful musical performer. I believed him every time he opened. It wasn't Christian that was in love with Satine, it was Ewan in love with Nicole. Nicole was very good in the acting department and I will even say that this has to be some of her best work. In the singing department (and being a singer myself), she might have had a stronger voice with some breath support lessons. I hated John Leguizamo...period.
Luhrmann definitely puts this film in your lap and weighs you down with it. It's new, it's old, it's off the scale but registers with you, it's both beautiful and tragic, romantic and playful and a full throttle trip down a demented psychedelic love canal.