A Refreshing Burst of creativity

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2007)

A story about truth, beauty, freedom, and love And loving it is hardly a challenging task when this magical story is displayed on the screen. Moulin Rouge throws a surprising twist on what seems to be an overused theme of "love" in Hollywood. Is it overused? Well, after watching this film, I found myself reconsidering the meaning of "love" as a cinematic theme and concluded that my previous definition was to be taken off the shelf; it is now well expired.
It is a movie I entered with ambivalent to low expectations. For all I knew, I was in for another ride down the musical roller coaster, and this one was going to make me really sick ("oh no, here comes another long song about love, where's the barf bag?") Instead, I was treated to one of the most phenomenal stories ever captured on film, told with such creativity and originality that I knew there had to something wrong with it. How am I so easily falling for this fantasy/comedy/musical/drama/documentary(wait, did I say documentary? Well yes, this was a fantastic narrative that was really told biographically, so in a "let's-not-get-too-technical-about-film-terms" sort of way, was a fictional documentary).
And I thought I'd seen and heard it all just when I realized, "wait, I did." Most all of the songs performed were readapted famous singles already made famous by such artists as Elton John, Madonna, The Police, and Nirvana, yet I found every performance to be beyond delightful, entertaining, amusing, and most of all, inventive; these performances pieced together every mood of the story, collectively seducing me, and with no sense of time, I was in love with this movie.
Moulin Rouge sets not only a standard for musicals but a standard for the entire film industry. When the next movie comes along with musical performances that seem to actually improve the original song, more than impressive booming vocal performances by the two leads, a story that carries the viewer a fantasy world that for once feels so real, I'll be the first person to buy the ticket. But wait, on second thought, I must keep in mind the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." This film deserves to be that single original gem, and should never be sought to be improved, recreated, or just copied in the form of another "unoriginal film", instead, this cinematic achievement should be set aside and just appreciated and glorified for all that it has accomplished.