**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, John Legiuzamo, Jim Broadbent, and Richard Roxburgh.
Directed by Baz Luhrmann, written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.
2001 PG13
Most Over-Rated Movie 2001
Most musicals, even some truly great ones, are all style with little or no substance. They provide some catchy tunes to stick in our heads and the exhilaration of watching happy people perform dizzying dance routines, and maybe some witty banter in between. “An American in Paris,” for instance, does not really teach us anything about love. It’s basically a music video, except we have Gershwin instead of rock and ballet instead of choreographed bimbos. But what these movie musicals have that “Moulin Rouge” lacks is the knowledge that if they pack no intellectual punch, they should not overstay their welcome.
“Moulin Rouge” begins as fluff and should have been content to stay that way. By the end the melodrama has become too thick, too repetitive, and taken too long; the songs are too long, too loud, and too gushy. After two hours director Baz Luhrmann’s (the man behind the 1996 Leonardo DiCaprio “Romeo + Juliet” debacle) camera trickery, which is novel at the beginning, is just as tiring as the songs we hear over and over again. I wanted the movie to stay true its beginning. I didn’t want to hear the same song two, three, even four times, and I wanted the whole thing to end about a half-hour sooner.
The story is simple, as should be in musicals, and bears a strong resemblance to “An American in Paris” (with its courtesans and artistes it also bears a resemblance to the non-musical “Children of Paradise,” although severely simplified). Both “Rouge” and “Paris” involve expatriate artists living in a Paris of the imagination: a place where morals are a little freer and women a little wilder. “Rouge” stars Ewan McGregor as a penniless writer and “Paris” stars Gene Kelly as a penniless painter. Both men become entangled with women that are torn between pauperish true-loves and wealthy would-be suitors.
“Rouge’s” English poet moves to Paris and becomes part of the emerging Bohemian scene at the turn of the twentieth century. Their leader is the dwarf Toulose Letrec, played with eccentricity and a bizarre lisp by John Leguizamo. They say the words “love, truth, freedom, and beauty” a whole lot without exploring what any of it means, but that’s okay, this is a musical, not a documentary. To get a place to perform their play, they become involved with Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the owner of the Moulin Rouge, a fabulous brothel and musical revue. Broadbent in turn mortgages the brothel to a wealthy Duke (Richard Roxburgh of “MI2”) in order to fund the Bohemian play. Meanwhile, McGregor and the Duke both fall for the Rouge’s star chanteuse/prostitute (Nicole Kidman), who clearly prefers McGregor but also wants to not work at the Rouge forever.