Picture yourself on acid, sitting in front of a child with ADHD frantically changing the stations on the radio while talking a mile a minute and you might have an idea of what to expect from this film. This movie is an ugly, disjointed mess with vapid characters, poor usage of good music, and an abusive relationship with Jitter Cam.
Let's begin with the music. Within the first twenty minutes or so, we are treated to Rodgers And Hammerstein, Nirvana, Madonna, the 70's pop hit, Lady Marmalade with a little bit of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend all more or less overlapping one another. If this sounds like it would be awkward and tacky to the point of being offensive, you are correct. I understand the use of anachronistic music as a stylistic choice but why the mashup of songs that clearly do not belong together? Forming three or four songs together in a rhapsody would also suffice but in this movie, they relegate themselves to throwing every Top 10 hit of the past few decades against each other to see what sticks. We never really hear more than one line at a time, either; Lurhmann choosing to pick the most recognizable lyric of the most famous song he can find before blindsiding us with a completely different piece in the next instance. In the scene where the two leads confess their love for one another, we are treated to a song that sounds something like this, "All you need is love because we can be heroes if we still haven't found what we're looking for".
Now, the sets, costumes, and choreography seem very well made and put together; that is, if Baz Lurhmann held a shot for more than three seconds and we were able to get a good look at everything. The camera is flipped, tossed, spun, swung, hurled, and otherwise catapulted across the screen. Would it be so bad if we had a chance to stop and take in the visuals? The spastic acting from the cast does not help matters. They run and shout through every scene with few exceptions and this is further emphasized by the directing. It seems as though they're trying to make up for the fact that the characters are very two-dimensional.
By the end of the film, I couldn't care less who lived or died and all I could do was shrug with complete apathy when Moulin Rouge was closed down. In closing, this film is overhyped dreck.
Messy and Tacky
Picture yourself on acid, sitting in front of a child with ADHD frantically changing the stations on the radio while talking a mile a minute and you might have an idea of what to expect from this film. This movie is an ugly, disjointed mess with vapid characters, poor usage of good music, and an abusive relationship with Jitter Cam.
Let's begin with the music. Within the first twenty minutes or so, we are treated to Rodgers And Hammerstein, Nirvana, Madonna, the 70's pop hit, Lady Marmalade with a little bit of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend all more or less overlapping one another. If this sounds like it would be awkward and tacky to the point of being offensive, you are correct. I understand the use of anachronistic music as a stylistic choice but why the mashup of songs that clearly do not belong together? Forming three or four songs together in a rhapsody would also suffice but in this movie, they relegate themselves to throwing every Top 10 hit of the past few decades against each other to see what sticks. We never really hear more than one line at a time, either; Lurhmann choosing to pick the most recognizable lyric of the most famous song he can find before blindsiding us with a completely different piece in the next instance. In the scene where the two leads confess their love for one another, we are treated to a song that sounds something like this, "All you need is love because we can be heroes if we still haven't found what we're looking for".
Now, the sets, costumes, and choreography seem very well made and put together; that is, if Baz Lurhmann held a shot for more than three seconds and we were able to get a good look at everything. The camera is flipped, tossed, spun, swung, hurled, and otherwise catapulted across the screen. Would it be so bad if we had a chance to stop and take in the visuals? The spastic acting from the cast does not help matters. They run and shout through every scene with few exceptions and this is further emphasized by the directing. It seems as though they're trying to make up for the fact that the characters are very two-dimensional.
By the end of the film, I couldn't care less who lived or died and all I could do was shrug with complete apathy when Moulin Rouge was closed down. In closing, this film is overhyped dreck.