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**1/2 of ****
Rated PG-13
Length: 126 minutes
Writers:
Baz Luhrmann
Craig Pearce
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Cast
Nicole Kidman: Satine
Ewan McGregor: Christian
John Leguizamo: Toulouse Lautrec
Jim Broadbent: Zidler
Richard Roxburgh: Duke of Worcester
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In some ways it resembles Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas with the frenetic happenings of it all. During the movie I was thinking, "is garish spelled with 2 'R's or 1?"
Ewan McGregor's singing was pretty good, and did overshadow Nicole Kidman's who voice was fine. There won't be any awards here. The editing was very excessive and damaged the quality of the movie. There was virtually no discernible choreography because of the speed freak editing. The scenery was certainly interesting, and helped move the tone from reality to cartoon which was a good thing. The costumes were numerous and involved which added to the visual effect. I may be one of the few middle of the road people with my opinions on this movie. I see it as a first hour high energy musical comedy followed by a slower second hour of musical romance. The first hour was better with more fun in the development on the nearly two dimensional characters. The dialog was transformed from the spoken prose of the story to the sung lyrics of pop songs early on, and that helped to pull off the second half a little more smoothly. It was kind of a relief when things slowed down, visually anyway, in the second hour, but the reduction of comedy made it less enjoyable. The conversations were made up of pop song lyrics which didn't exactly help add depth to the characters, but it was sort of like an Easter egg hunt. The transpositioning of all that music and lyrics into a reasonable story was an accomplishment.
Accepting the Bohemian excesses as tongue n' cheek throughout will make this a more appreciable piece of entertainment. The audience had mixed reactions, but generally seemed to like it. Ultimately, this is one of those movie experiences that people will have to see for themselves. You will want the big screen with decent sound, but a second run theater, or at least a rainy day matinee will be good enough.