A BRILLIANT MADNESS!!!

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2001)

This film is brilliant!
It has a script with tons of cliches, an editing style that makes MTV jealous and - no - it's no film by Michael Bay.
Instead we get one of the best musicals ever. Where other musicals have their 'own' songs, Moulin Rouge! uses pop-songs from the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's to carry the whole film and it works great, even if the film plays in 1899 and 1900.
McGregor and Kidman, the two leads playing Christian and Satine, are a perfect match and this combination will be placed in movie history along with other classic couples like Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca and Leigh and Gable in Gone With the Wind. Time has to tell if Moulin Rouge! will become a classic like these two, but it looks good for Moulin Rouge! It's my favorite film of the year (closely followed by A.I. and Fellowship of the Ring has yet to come!)
Baz Luhrmann is absolutely brilliant, something we could've seen already in Romeo + Juliette. It seems he doesn't know what an anachronism is, but that's completely fine with me. In the hands of a lesser director this could've been a very bad film, but it all turned out perfect.
My favorite part is where Christian and Satine are on the top of the Elephant and start singing several songs (or at least a few lines of them) in one brilliant scene.
Is there anything wrong with this film? Perhaps the first half hour is sometimes too much, but it delivers great cinema. And, like said before, the script is a collection of cliches, but in this case it didn't bother me, because the film had tons and tons of other things to offer. These small minor points are nothing against the pro's the film has to offer. Just see it... no, EXPERIENCE it!
I wonder why it did so poorly at the box-office? Are people not ready for it? Were it the poor reviews of critics who praised The Mummy Returns and Pearl Harbor (both: worthless, especially in comparison with Moulin Rouge!) and thought Moulin Rouge! was a mediocre film? I don't know. Maybe one day we'll know...
To be short:
This one will blast you out of your seat and has to be seen in the theater. It's a total cinematic explosion! A film to love and see over and over again!
It's a true must-see and I rate it 10/10!