Blu-ray Review: Moulin Rouge! (2001)

For better or worse, some directors shoot for the stars.  Their efforts may result in colossal misfires, but they could also result in a truly stellar experience.   With 2001's Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann certainly ended up with the latter as the movie not only shoots for the stars, but manages to get there.

The film stars Nicole Kidman as Satine, a courtesan and singer at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in the Montmartre district in Paris, and Ewan McGregor as Christian, a would-be poet who falls desperately in love with her.  With a script written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, Moulin Rouge! is an astounding and pulse-pounding reinvention of the musical.  The majority of the songs in the film are well known pop numbers and virtually the entire thing is conducted at such a frenetic pace that the audience never gets the chance to breathe.  It features medley after medley that not only end up with many in the audience singing along, but also manage to perfectly express the hopes, desires, and fears of the characters.

The task of explaining exactly what one is in for should they watch a film like Moulin Rouge! isn't quite the easiest of things.  It is an unrelenting, old-time love story.  Christian and Satine are meant to be, they are destined to be, they are a couple who will fight for their love no matter what, and yet it is clear from early on that the film will not truly have a happy ending.  They will fight for their love even through each other's moments of doubt and the wishes of The Duke (Richard Roxburgh), who is funding the play Christian is writing and in which Satine is starring, but they will never be able to escape the inevitable.

That, of course, tells you what the story is, but it doesn't tell you what the movie is like.  It is, quite literally, bright and sparkling, full of quick cuts, momentary bursts of song, and the hyperactive pace of the Moulin Rouge nightclub in which much of the film takes place.  One moment the stars will be singing The Beatles, the next U2, and then finally they'll be completely silenced when the Unconscious Argentinean (Jacek Koman) has another bout of narcolepsy and falls flat on his face. 

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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