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‘Moulin Rouge’ mistakes bombast for style, a Briefcase



MOULIN ROUGE

20th Century Fox; Rated PG-13; starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor; directed, produced and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. “Moulin Rouge” works like a drug, sucking us into its guilty pleasures a feverish dreamscape of blinding lights and deafening sounds as told through operatic musical sequences the likes of which would embarrass Andrew Lloyd Webber. Set in Bohemian Paris circa 1899, we meet a starry-eyed writer (McGregor) in search of truth, beauty, freedom, and above all, love. The aptly named Christian quickly loses his innocence, though, in this unseemly place where men of power and wealth rub elbows with sideshow freaks and dance cheek-to-cheek with glamorous women of artificial means,it could be Newport Beach on a Saturday night. Christian falls for the lovely Satine (Nicole Kidman) and breaks into song. The film is a musical, after all, and in one of the bravest notions of a brave movie, Luhrmann has his leads do their own singing.

To their credit, Kidman and McGregor showcase voices that, if not powerful, are at least equal to the majority of today’s teeny-bob pop artists. However, if the true test of a musical is whether of not you walk out of the theater humming the tunes, then this movie fails. The film transforms pop tunes into full-blown Broadway productions, but you won’t find yourself singing top-hat-and-tails versions of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or U2’s “In the Name of Love.” Perhaps the star duo’s lack of lungpower caused the director to augment them with blaring music. More likely though, it’s Luhrmann’s insistence on playing puppet master that too often threatens to drown them out, thus stealing away the movie’s emotional heart. It’s unfair to fault Luhrmann for taking chances, but not for his failure to differentiate between the creative and the merely bombastic.

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