hmmm. not bad, but not great.

Rating: Null/10 (24 March 2005)

this is not a movie that i believe will stand the test of time. Yes, it probably revived the 'musical' genre and got us all ready for Chicago (great!) and later The Phantom of the Opera (bad), but...
Unfortunately i think Baz Luhraman's film is too cut up, too haphazard, too fast. The "energy" of the film isn't bottled up to create a huge explosion but rather little fireworks here and there. Perhaps this is why i didn't really connect, or care about the characters and their fates.
Undoubtedly Nicole Kidman is suited to the part of Satine as are her costars to their own parts. I would have preferred her winning her Oscar for this rather than her overrated "The Hours" performance where she was was shown up by costars Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep (in my humble opinion). But then again i still haven't seen Halle Berry in Monsters Ball (who won the Oscar, the year Kidman was nominated for MR)