Movie Review: Moulin Rouge

I have been recieving via e-mail from some people, accusing me of just acting macho so that I can retain street cred with my homies.

That may be true.

Or it may not be 😉

Anyways, I thought I’d review one of my favorite movies, Moulin Rouge. You can all decide if I am a closet Romantic or not. (Or this could all be Sirhc writting this, since his evil, and he is my twin).

Moulin Rouge

Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Nicole Kidman …. Satine
Ewan McGregor …. Christian
John Leguizamo …. Toulouse-Lautrec
Jim Broadbent …. Harold Zidler
Richard Roxburgh …. The Duke

Grade: A+

It’s a time old tale. Boy moves to Montmartre France, boy finds girl, girl finally decides she wants boy, yada yada.
In this interation of the story, Baz Luhrmann has taken old pop songs, combined them with frantic, busy camera work, and created a film that will please. Make no mistake, if you go get yourself some popcorn, you might as well throw in the towel and watch it some other time.
The film starts off showing us a rather dejected Christian (Ewan McGregor). He starts by letting us know that he will be telling us about the year before, and that the woman he loves is dead.
He starts writing a story that “is about love”. We then travel back, as he tells the story of his moving to France, and his search for the Bohemian ideals (and this is my favorite part).

Beauty, freedom, truth, and, above all things, love.

He then finds a group of misfit bohemians who are attempting to write a play, one that they call “Spectacular, Spectacular.” Due to some writting differences, Christian ends up being recruited to write this play for the Bohemians.

The Bohemians offer Christian some absinthe (like one zillion percent alcohol) and what follows is a blur of green fairies, windmills, and courtesians. At this point you get introduced to Satine (Kidman) and Zidler (Broadbent). Satine is a singer/courtesian and Zidler is the business man who owns the Moulin Rouge (a business of ill repute). More visual insanity ensues, and you get to see Zidler do a series of backflips and some naughty can-can.

Through a series of mishaps Satine believes that Christian is a wealthy financer, and Christian promptly falls in love with her. The only problem is the real financier, The Duke. The Duke decides he must have Satine, and well, a nasty little love triangle love ensues. In the words of the J. Geils Band “You love her, But she loves him”.

Throught the rest of the movie, you watch as Satine and Christian fall in love. You also find that Satine is dying (of TB). Throught this act, my favorite song is played “Come what may”.

Never knew I could feel like this
Like I’ve never seen the sky before
I want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day i’m loving you more than this
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sings
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time

Chorus:
Come what may
Come what may
I will love you until my dying day

At the end, a jilted Christian realizes that she loves him, and well, you’ll have to watch to see how it ends (if you already haven’t). One thing I have noticed, is when a scene is about Christian, it has a blue backdrop. When a scene with Satine is shot, it is in Red.

Anyways, it’s a good film.

I give it 4 out 4 Roller Skating Neon-glowing Muses.