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| Genre: | Musicals |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Rating: | PG13 |
| Length: | 2h 8mins |
| Cast: | Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo |
Director Baz Luhrmann's latest extravaganza, an exuberant re-envisioning of the movie musical and an operatic salute to 20th-century pop culture, borrows from everywhere yet manages to be a cinematic experience unlike any other. Recalling Puccini's La BohŠme, Lurhmann sets his tale in the world's original pop-pleasure dome, the Moulin Rouge of fin de siŠcle Paris. Ewan McGregor stars as Christian, an idealistic and impoverished young writer who, newly arrived in Montmartre, is haphazardly inducted into a circle of absinthe-swilling bohemians led by Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo). A comedy of mistaken identities ensues, quickly enmeshing the young poet in a Mephistophelean love triangle involving the unobtainable and consumptive Satine (Nicole Kidman), queen courtesan of the Moulin Rouge, and the foppish Duke of Roxbury (Richard Roxburgh), his villainous rival for her affections. Granted, you may find yourself reaching for an oxygen tank, thanks to the centrifugal force of Luhrmann's MTV editing style, combined with some staggering musical cross-pollination (sources range from David Bowie's version of the pop standard "Nature Boy" to Beck's version of Bowie's "Diamond Dogs"). But it's worth it. Moulin Rouge is exhausting, but it's also energizing and inexplicably moving. Kidman dazzles in a series of original costumes, and the elaborately constructed sets are equally stupendous. Look for a superb performance from Topsy Turvey's Jim Broadbent as Zidler, the Moulin Rouge's soft and fuzzy Faust. He also heads up one of the film's more hilarious song-and-dance sequences, stomped out to Madonna's "Like a Virgin." The double-disc DVD of Moulin Rouge -- which includes excellent production commentary, interviews with the director and writer, and at least ten hidden Easter Egg trailers -- offers welcome insight into the method behind the madness of this thoroughly postmodern folly. Virginia McCollam
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