Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Imagine a movie where virtually every line of the dialogue is a line or lines from the lyrics of famous pop songs. Then make it a period movie set in the early 1900’s but make all of the songs sung by the cast power pop that wouldn’t sound out of place on a top 40 radio station. How’s it sounding? Well, just for good measure make it a corny tragic love story and in case you haven’t guessed an over-the-top musical!
Surely this is the kind of thing most sane people would run a mile from but for some totally unknown reason this formula in MOULIN ROUGE actually works!
Nicole Kidman is our tragic heroine, a courtesan who is the star of the show and destined to die by a fatal disease and Ewan McGregor is the unknown writer who is accidentally given the opportunity to write a play for the Moulin Rouge in Paris. The leading couple instantly fall I love and it’s a sappy corny storyline from there. There is a brief but memorable appearance by Kylie Minogue and as I said, a great pop soundtrack.
There really isn’t much more I can say about this movie really other than go to see it in a theatre with a good sound system as its an important part of the film. It’s also worth mentioning that the period costumes and general look of the film are very authentic and Nicole and Ewan can actually sing. You shouldn’t enjoy MOULIN ROUGE but you almost certainly will!
