Wow. Breathtaking. There is little to say other than that, though I'd have preferred to see in a theater, and was fortunate enough to see it on a big TV screen with decent stereo. Other than that, it is captivating, beautiful, kinetic, sensuous, ambitious, and sometimes frustrating. The best thing I can say is that you have to see it.
There are a few sour notes, most particularly, the use of contemporary, instead of original music in most every scene. While the melange of Nirvana and Lady Marmalade work for a stunning opening dance number, in the one-to-one scenes with dommed lovers Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, Elton John, and a succession of other pop tunes, is an annoying distraction. More detrimental, the gimmick gets in the way of establishing an emotional bond between the lovers, and the chemistry is delayed because of the silliness of the songs. Unlike Tony and Maria, for whom West Side Story gave silent, touching moments, for too much of Moulin Rouge McGregor and Kidman (less so) are wide-eyed and hollering pop idiocies at
each other.
Additionally, the film is too long. It has two break-up scenes, where one would have sufficed. Also, both Kidman and McGregor have fine voices, but McGregor is a bellower, which grates. Lastly, the Duke - the bad guy and the man who longs to own Kidman - is played as a gruesome fop. Romantic triangles in any film suffer when there is no real competition (as in Titanic, where Billy Zane plays Kate Winslet's romantic captor just short of malevolent), and while the Duke was never meant to be a threat, to make him so ridiculous (to the point of physically abnormal) detracts from the bond between the star-crossed lovers.
That said, these flaws are easier to overlook given the dizzying spectacle Luhrman offers. I found myself laughing hysterically during Jim Broadbent's Like a Virgin, and at first, I thought that the laughter was a result of a scene gone awful. But it was so ridiculous that I was howling, and I imagine that was the effect Luhrman was aiming for. Similarly, the tango to The Police's Roxanne starts with a groan, but ends as a beautiful, sad and masterful song-and-dance.
And the ending was truly stunning, deft in both timing and finally, emotion.
Grade: A-.
