Review: Moulin Rouge

Despite some remarkable musical pastiches and riveting set pieces, this postmodern wank-job doesn’t have much of a heart.

Moulin Rouge
Photo: 20th Century Fox

I have this image of Baz Luhrmann as a little boy, sitting before a papier-mache house in the Australian outback next to toy trucks painted in bright colors and toy soldiers dressed in tutus. Sometime after Strictly Ballroom, Luhrmann must have come across the kind of budget that would pamper to his youthful, wide-eyed obsession with the color wheel. Less a filmmaker than circus ringleader, Luhrmann transforms Moulin Rouge into the biggest party since Steve Rubbel and Ian Shrager’s Studio 54. His Moulin Rouge is a hyper-energized house of burlesque where women like Satine (Nicole Kidman) pillage the hearts of men with their coy declarations of love. This pseudo-whore mistakenly falling in love with writer Christian (Ewan McGregor), thinking him to be the Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh), the man who will supposedly turn the gorgeous can-can chanteuse into the best actress since Sarah Bernhardt. Less a film than a collection of short music video clips, Moulin Rouge is a celebration of artifice that is at once glorious and exhilarating as it is loud, soulless, and obnoxious. Despite some remarkable musical pastiches and riveting set pieces, this postmodern wank-job doesn’t have much of a heart. If you like sugar highs, though, Moulin Rouge will not disappoint.

Score: 
 Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Lequizamo, Jim Broadbent, Jacek Koman, Kerry Walker, Matthew Whittet, Gary McDonald, Caroline, O'Connor, Lara Mulcahy, Richard Roxbourgh  Director: Baz Luhrmann  Screenwriter: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce  Distributor: 20th Century Fox  Running Time: 126 min  Rating: PG-13  Year: 2001  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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