Can Can and opera, comedy and melodrama

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2001)

This film goes on a rollercoaster ride which doesn't stop until the ending credits. It opens on a young writer Christian (Ewan McGregor) who takes us on a view of how he and the famed courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman) met and fell in love. Now if you don't like films that focus on love or have a rather tired plot, don't see this film. However, in spite of the almost weak dialogue at times, both Kidman and Mc Gregor so such a superb job of acting that you really do not care. The sets are absolutely amazing, and Kidman's costuming merely shows what a gorgeous creature she is.The music constantly shifts from one piece of pop music to another, from the Police's Roxanne to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. I heard people arguing about the point of that as I left the theatre, but I don't think the songs were meant to be imbued with any deep hidden meaning here. They are just there for laughs and fun. Something that I also loved,(and others hated) was the close up, almost independent film quality that the shots had. It left you with the same sort of artistic feeling that going to Sundance might have, and was just as long (two hours). But again, if that isn't your thing.... My only beef with this film is that I felt the ending was a bit smarmy and contrived, although certainly effective. Here is where Mc Gregor and Kidman show why they are called actors, and manage to take an ending we have seen before and transform it into something that rips your heart out, and then makes you marvel at its beauty. 9/10