Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Grade: A+
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Richard Roxburgh, Jim Broadbent, and John Leguizamo
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Rated PG-13 for sexual content


If you are going to see "Moulin Rouge" you are going to have to understand a few things. First of all, it's a musical. It's not your grandmother's musical; it's radical, loud, and flashy. Second of all, it's set in 1900 and it uses modern pop songs as it's ammo. Third, this film is a lot of fun and you just have to kick back, relax and enjoy the spectacle.

Musicals are the hardest type of film to make. You have to have the perfect music, the perfect actors. Your film has to have the right tone and be versatile enough to shift from whimsical to melodramatic in a matter of seconds. Well, "Moulin Rouge" has and does all of this in aces. Thanks in large part to director/Aussie crazy man Baz Luhrmann. With "Moulin Rouge," he took the distracting style that hampered his rendering of "Romeo + Juliet" and puts it in the right setting. It's a spectacle of costumes, sets, production, and direction. This film has it all.

"Moulin Rouge" tells the story of an idealistic, possibly-Bohemian wannabe writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor). He's got a sparkle in his eye and a dream in his heart. He follows his dream to Montmartre, a seedy French town home to the famous club, Moulin Rouge (meaning "Red Windmill" in French). It's in Montmartre where he meets a troupe of actors, writers, musicians, etc. who call themselves Bohemians. The Bohemians had a set of beliefs that included, among others, beauty and freedom, but above all, love.

When Christian meets them, they are trying to produce a play (a musical to be exact). Things aren't working out, and there is some friction between the creative voices involved. It's Christian who saves things when he appears and starts to come up with clever lyrics for a song (maybe you've heard it, it's called "The Sound of Music"). When the group discovers his immense talent, they recruit him to write the rest of the play. The only problem is funding. So, they come up with a brilliant plan for Christian to dress up as the Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh) who is in town and will be at the Moulin Rouge.

As it turns out, the owner of the club (Jim Broadbent) is trying to get a real play to go on into production and to be preformed at the club, so the Duke is in town scouting it out to see if he would like to invest. "His rates are fixed at 10%." The star of the show is going to be the beautiful courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman) if everything goes correctly. When she mistakes Christian for the Duke, things go haywire and a love affair ensues.

The plot covers no new ground and is in no way unpredictable. What makes it special is how Luhrmann utilizes his artistic strengths, keeping the audience enthralled for the film's running time. The club is presented as the ultimate party palace. The showstopping costumes, fast and furious dance numbers, vivacious characters, audiences hungry for entertainement. There's glitter, there's lights, there's action. It's extremely hard to describe what this club is like. From arial shots it's impossible to see a square inch of the floor because there are so many extras floating about, all exuding energy that radiates off the screen.

The one concession you are going to have to make is that this is a period film with modern songs in it. With the radical tone of the film, though, it seems to fit. It works in a way that you wouldn't expect. Luhrmann & Co. have chosen songs that fit the emotions of the characters, such as when McGregor busts out in a rendition Elton John's "Your Song" when describing his love for Satine. "The Elephant Love Medley" is an impressive collection of famous love songs from Kiss' "I Was Made For Loving You" to Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs." The performers know how to handle the material, and it works exceptionally well.

Arguably, the best scene in the film is "La Tango de Roxanne" which depicts three different scenes. One is Satine and the Duke having a "romantic" dinner in the Gothic Tower. The other is of bored thespians waiting for the decision about what ending they will use in the play. As one of the mentioned thespian's realizes Christian's situation, he breaks out into a Latin-tinged version of The Police's "Roxanne". The third scene is an extension of the second, as Christian leaves the club to wallow in his sadness and sees the Duke and Satine on a balcony making out. The scene is powerful because of the events that happen in the different scenes: an impassioned, stomping tango and some domestic abuse. Viscerally and emotionally, the scene is exciting and compelling.

One complaint that can be lodged against the film is that it can be kind of uneven and doesn't really have a constant tone. One moment you'll laugh at the slapstick antics of John Leguizamo's Toulouse Lautrec, and the next you'll be in tears over the latest development of the Christian/Satine romance.

Making the love affair feel real, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor exude charm and energy. Kidman in particular handles her quieter moments extremely well. Her singing voice is quite good also, and the music isn't too hard for her or her fellow castmates to handle. Satine is the most doomed and tragic character in the film and Kidman really does make us feel for her when she learns of some crushing news.

Ewan McGregor proves that he has talent in this movie. While Kidman gives a career-best performance, McGregor gives a career sustaining performance. Having been good in such films as "Shallow Grave" and "The Velvet Goldmine," this role is a departure for him. He has that gleam in his eyes that he lost in the mediocre-at-best "Phantom Menace." While Kidman has the most dramatic character, McGregor gives us the raw emotions that are more in line with his character than with Kidman's. He has a stunning voice and keeps the film afloat during some of it's more flawed moments.

Some musicals are considered to be the best films of all time. Just witness "West Side Story," "Singing In the Rain," and "The Sound of Music" for evidence. "Moulin Rouge" doesn't quite join their ranks, but it does have a place as one of the year's best films and a refreshing respite from the big bomb explosions of the summer's action extravaganzas. This film is a must-see.


-Brian Jones, 2001/2002