Brilliance and Beauty behind Insanity

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2002)

"This story is about love...the woman I loved is.....dead." That's one of the first lines of this film, and sets the tone better than you could imagine. You might think it sets you up for a depressing ride...ha. You either love it or hate it, I've never met anyone in the middle.

This is a better movie than I imagined. It sells itself as a colorful melodrama, but it's a musical through and through. It's officially a TragiComiDramaMusical, or that's what the critics call it, but it gets to your heartstrings and senses and kicks them - violently.
Baz Luhrmann had a theory for this film, that music and razzle dazzle and color will create a heightened experience, and it worked. People may pay more attention to it for it's astounding technical abilities. But then I was mainly captivated by it's music, acting, and it's storyline. Not to say I didn't like the color and razor sharp editing (Jill Bilcock is quite amazing), quite the contrary. I was purely amazed at what they achieved. But that they could go over that and send a clear cut and emotional story with superb acting, is something you rarely see in any "super charged" films. It's chock full of allegories, symbolism, etc, of which we rarely see anymore, and there are many layered stories occurring at once. Luhrmann hand groomed it all to make it work at it's full potential, and it's varying degrees of beauty will hit you if you really pay attention. This is not a film to be watched partly, you have to pay full attention or you won't get it.
The story is loosely based on the Greek Tragedy about Orhpeus and Dumas'fils "Camille". It revolves around the young Christian (Ewan McGregor) who enters the world of the Moulin Rouge and Montmarte to become a great writer. He befriends some strange Bohemians and is assigned to write a show for the MR called "Spectacular! Spectacular!". He has to recruit the courtesan Satine, but falls in love with her. Eventually they both become enmeshed in their love for each other, the dirty and treacherous goings on of the MR, and the making of the show. After betrayal and intrigue, the film ends with a tragic ending you knew was coming from Christian's first penetrating line: "This story is about love...the woman I loved is.....dead."
The acting is much better than I expected. People had been talking about how Kidman could get a Oscar nomination for her performance in this (which she did), but I had thought "Why? It's a musical. There's no such thing as good acting in musicals." Nicole shines. She goes through several stages in the film and is always believable at the level she chooses. Especially in her TB scenes, where she plays sick, she does a very unglamorous and ugly portrayal of the disease. She does comedy and seduction and heroism in one role subtly, and it's not at all cliche. McGregor particularly surprised me. I had known he was a good actor, he too goes through stages, and pulls it off with his ability to act completly natural in a weird role. It's hard to act "innocent" without getting terribly annoying, and he's not, but maybe because he's more of a decent and noble character than the stereotypical "innocent" (compared to Dumas' Armand, he's far nobler, he doesn't sink to depravity whereas Armand did). Supporting characters shine, and John Leguizamo deserves a thumbs up for a particularly painful but strong performance (if you hear how they shortened him). Jim Broadbent, who plays the enabling and sweet pimp Zidler (that's what he is), is fantastic, and Richard Roxborough who plays the Duke is notorious and does a wonderful job at being completely and one hundred percent devious.
This movie shines, and it addicts you. Many people have said you either love it or you hate it, and I'd say it's true, I've never met someone who was lukewarm about it. It will either overwhelm you or you'll find it ridiculous, or you'll like it for all it is. It's supposed to be overboard. It's supposed to have that "If it exists we'll use it just because." That's the whole point. It's a beautiful film, and it's very true in it's story, it follows how life works. There are people who'll be bad to you, and people who will love you, and not everything works as you want it and death is a much stronger force than an ideal. It's supposed to be an experience, not just a date at the movies.
© written by Mercy Bell