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Created Mar 22, 2009 08:23AM PST • Edited Mar 22, 2009 08:23AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   I love this movie. I shouldn’t love this movie. I enjoyed Zombie Strippers for crying out loud, I should hate this movie. But I don’t. At heart I’m a sappy romantic who’s life has been very influenced by music and this movie was just too well done to not enjoy.

   From the outside this movie looks like its too much – and at first it is. It looks like an over the top cheesy chic flick musical – and it is, but intentionally so. Moulin Rouge starts out as a very quick, very flashy assault on your senses. It starts on a somber, sad intro from Ewan McGregor, but the introduction to the rest of the world goes by very quick and if you don’t stick through its easy to get lost very quick. Just like the bordello itself, the movie starts out very fake, very surreal but it has a very genuine heart once you get past that.

   The movie is all about the power of music, especially the lyrics, and how it has shaped our world. There are a few uncomfortable parts where you just have to laugh (the “Like a Virgin” scene comes to mind), but realize it was intentionally so. Everything was very deliberately done in this movie to support the story. Man comes into a world he doesn’t understand, falls for a woman he can’t have and shouldn’t want, plays it through anyway, gets hurt and it all works out in the end. Nothing terribly original, but very powerfully told. Stay in the right frame of mind or you’ll lose the point. Stay in the right frame of mind and you will enjoy this movie.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   The casting in this film was pretty spot-on. To pull off the weight of the story at the end, when a lot of the movie is so over the top, is not an easy thing. I think that all the pieces fit together just so and it pulls it off almost perfectly.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   Ewan McGregor is amazing as always. As Christian, he plays a very convincing hopeless romantic out of his league and out of his mind crazy for Kidman’s Satine. At the end, when the final curtain is drawn, it is McGregor’s emotional response that will hit you the hardest. It does go overboard a little bit, but I think it is necessary to really deliver the final punch to the gut and pull off the story. Christian is the aspect that grounds everyone. He is very real and pulls everyone out of the “show” of the Moulin Rouge to a point where we can relate to them.

   It’s also pretty surprising that he has a good singing voice. Its not amazing, but pretty dang good.

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

   I’m not a huge Nicole Kidman fan. I’ve just never been terribly entertained by watching her. As Satine, she plays a showgirl who wants something more from life. She wants to be a real actress in a real theater. More than just a pretty face who shakes her stuff and sleeps with men. At the beginning of the movie she is very over the top. She is cheesy, vain, and generally fake. It is intentional, but that was the hardest part for me to get past. The more time she spends with Christian, the more human she becomes. By the end she pulls it off pretty well. There are a few parts where she tries a little too hard, but McGregor saves the day in all those instances.

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

   The only real female costar is Caroline O’Connor as Nini (I believe those are the names). She is a fellow performer jealous of Satine who ultimately throws the relationship under the bus and reveals the secret to the Duke. She plays her part well and moves the movie forward.

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

   Jim Broadbent as Zidler and Richard Roxburgh as the Duke are generally stereotypical characters. They serve their purpose in the story and move on. The benefit of having actors of such caliber is that when those human moments come, when it is no longer the “show”, the deliver in spades. Broadbent is particularly good as the man who runs the Moulin Rouge and is a makeshift father figure to Satine. The Moulin Rouge has been so successful because of Zidler and his complete understanding of how it works. Roxburgh’s Duke is a man who has gotten where he is with money. He can’t hold a regular relationship because he has no understanding of people, so he has to use his money to try and buy women and companionship.

   John Lequizamo as Toulouse-Lautrec was decent. Nothing fantastic, but he plays the part with complete surrender, looking foolish and genuine all at once.

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Baz Luhrman delivers a very rich, very convincing universe filled with every human emotion imaginable. When the movie needs to be, it is flash and quick and very colorful. You are able to follow it at all times, though, as Luhrman is masterful at getting the shot right. There are giant dance scenes, musical numbers, intimate moments and death scenes which can be a lot to handle, but everything is well balanced.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

    Not much really. The violence is very minimal and the sex is just suggestive more than anything. There is no nudity and the crudeness is minimal. The PG-13 rating was earned more on suggestive merit than anything else I think.

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.5

    Thought it appears otherwise at the beginning and various other parts throughout, this is a very real story in a very real world. The setting makes it feel more heightened than it is, but its not something you think could not happen. There are really only a few shots that are not realistic ( a gun flying from someones hand and hitting the eiffel tower for example, or the singing moon in the dance montage with McGregor and Kidman), but that’s it. The further you get into the story, and the movie, the more real it becomes.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Glib 1.5