Very good.

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2005)

OK, first of all it needs to be said that "Moulin Rouge" is a very strange movie and that there's a good chance it will confuse a lot of people. It's not like any other musical I've ever seen. On the scale of all things strange, it's like "Jesus Christ Superstar" times three. Intrigued? Yeah? Well so was I. So, I did some research and discovered that Baz Luhrmann's movie is actually a combination of three completely different musicals: "La Bohème", "La Traviata" and "Orpheus in the Underworld" smashed together and then mixed with a truly bizarre combination of modern musical stylings and twisted pop-culture. The results are anywhere from hilarious (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit") to very touching (Elton John's "Your Song"). At first, I wanted to start my review of "Moulin Rouge" by saying how I didn't understand how Luhrmann and Co. came up with the idea to make this film, but now that I think about it, it's really pretty obvious. It's very natural for filmmakers to want to make an "updated" version of an old play or an old film. They're doing it every single day. Now, making a new version work? That's the hard part. "Moulin Rouge" works because instead of shaping itself for its audience, it asks its viewers to shape themselves for the movie, thus pulling them into a strange and colorful world where anything can happen. It's loud and it's incredibly ambitious, but director/writer Baz Luhrmann juggles all of the movies themes very carefully. Every character is well established and well written.
The film's tagline: "No Laws. No Limits. One Rule. Never Fall In Love" is pitch-perfect because it describes perfectly the conflict of the film. That is: what are the consequences of falling in love with a person who sells their body? Now, that's really under-analyzing the film. It's about a lot more than that: Death, sex, love, etc., but maybe that's a good place to start if you want to understand the plight of the characters in the film. The best sequence in the entire movie, a dance number featuring a Rouge prostitute and an employee that shifts focus into a sexual confrontation between the evil "Duke" character and Nicole Kidman's "Satine", really explores these central themes.
"Moulin Rouge" is the kind of movie that will divide people. But, I believe that most of the complaints that I've heard from the other camp about the film are simply ill-founded. The most common complaint that I've heard is that the movie is too "bombastic" in its imagery and that Luhrmann places too much emphasis on "style" over "substance". First of all, the expression "style over substance" is probably the most trite and cliché expression in the history of film, so it should not be used. (That's for you, guy on the IMDb forum). However, the basis for that argument is not very good either. "Moulin Rouge" does not feature its tremendously elaborate dance numbers simply to show off the talent of the director (though he definitely could do that). Naysayers argue that Luhrmann's movie is drowning in its own excess, but what they don't see is that THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. He wants us to see the trashy and elaborate life of the people that live and work in the Moulin Rouge club and after all, this IS a musical right? My vote: 8 / 10