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Overall Rating
 Awesome: 59.95%
Worth A Look: 11.42%
Average: 4.3%
Pretty Bad: 8.06%
Total Crap: 16.26%
18 reviews, 636 user ratings
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| Moulin Rouge! |
by Kevin Thomas
"Nirvana in musicals; the future's bright..."

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Ewan McGregor has come a long way since we first saw him sprawled over a car bonnet in the opening sequence of Trainspotting, and this hyperactively surreal offering from Baz Lurhman is the latest in a long line of movies he is using to try to destroy his image of a Glaswegian heroin addict.He plays Christian; a British writer trying to find inspiration and love in bohemian turn of the century Paris. He finds it in the reluctant arms of burlesque performer Satine (Kidman, who puts in a wonderful performance when playing off McGregor’s devotions), a diamond-loving prostitute, at the titular nightclub the ‘Moulin Rouge’. What starts off as a case of mistaken identity escalates into the most powerful love either of them will ever know.
Though the songs play the central role, it is the set designs and the visual flair that leaves the biggest impression. Explosive set pieces, meticulously choreographed dance routines, grandiose costumes and Kylie Minogue as the Tinkerbell-eque absinthe fairy all burn their place in your mind, to the point where simply trying to take in everything that is happening on screen requires all your energy.
Although this storyline has been rolled out roughly twelve thousand times already, Luhrman’s inimitable style is what brings this particular version to life. To say it is grand is an understatement. Huge dance routines that appear to include hundreds of individual dancers play out to a mix of stylised modern classics (watching a can-can to the tune of a warped ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is not a movie scene to be forgotten in a hurry) in a melee of insanity that is hard to keep up with. This is the other problem. You can sometimes get so lost in the hectic on screen insanity that it is impossible to take in everything at once. This is all fine until important sections of the story are being told in the songs, and you don’t even realise this until you hear the final line and realise that the plot has taken a new direction during the course of the song.
That is one of the few problems with the film; it only has two speeds of pace throughout the entire thing. It is either rocketing forward at such a breakneck speed that it risks losing all coherency for large portions of the musical sequences, or it drags at a much slower pace while sections of back story are filled in. Sometimes, there simply is so much going on that a thousand brilliant little touches are lost in the mess. Just as you start to appreciate or get into one part of a set piece, it’s gone to make way for the next remixed 80’s song.
But so long as you can keep up with the (surprisingly large) parts of the plot that are told at light speed during the musical numbers, and don’t mind being given a bit too long to gather your breath in between, then the plot is perfectly suited to the bohemian world it is set in. The supporting cast of characters are a brilliant mix of spurned dukes, fat comperes and narcoleptic Argentinians (whose fall through a ceiling must be one of the most original ways to open a movie ever) who all compliment the overall weirdness of the surreal little world perfectly. No character ever feels out of place, but given that all but five of the characters could easily be taken out of the film and it would still make perfect sense, it would have been nice if they were given a bit more meat to their roles or histories.Once we reach the end (well, the beginning, it’s all a Fight Club style flashback) you will be completely exhausted by the never ending visual assault, but you will also have a huge grin cemented on your face, so it must have been a nice ride. An immensely enjoyable spectacle.
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=4303&reviewer=368 originally posted: 08/25/04 11:36:19
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USA 01-Jun-2001 (PG-13) DVD: 14-Jan-2003
UK 07-Sep-2001 (12)
Australia 31-May-2001 (M)
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