Moulin Rouge (2001)
– I’m really not the target audience for this. I’m quite certain of that.
Having said that, my reaction to Moulin
Rouge is really quite lukewarm. In Moulin
Rouge Baz Luhrmann invents the velvet-vomit aesthetic with a rock opera
take on fin-de-siècle Paris starring Ewan McGregor as an aspiring playwright
and Nicole Kidman as the cabaret courtesan who loves him. The film might have
made a bigger impact had I seen it earlier; thirteen years after its release,
it feels like a lot of what I’ve already seen, especially in the wake of
Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (about
which I felt similarly ambivalent). Both films opened with their protagonist/narrator
on a typewriter, the words zooming across the screen. As for the central
conceit, the gimmicky pastiche of pop tunes and prewar visuals, it’s clever
initially, and the use of Elton John’s “Your Song” is actually quite perfect
for a romantic film. After a while, though, it gets tedious and at one point –
the moment at which Jim Broadbent, otherwise engaging in the movie, is forced to
sing Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” – quite demoralizing. Throw in John Leguizamo’s brutal
caricature of Toulouse-Lautrec and a runtime that feels much longer than its
two hours, and Moulin Rouge will have
you seeing red. Unless of course you’re into this sort of thing. If you surrender
to the chemistry Kidman and McGregor clearly have between themselves and
overlook the fact that the film tries to compensate for its lack of substance
with an overabundance of style, you’ll have yourself a blast. As for me, I’ll
be over here with the more convincing flicks.That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
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