Review of Moulin Rouge! (2001) by Tyler H — 20 Feb 2014

I feel like Moulin Rouge was a good film, and when I reflect back I feel like I want to rate it higher, but there were just parts of this film that I didn't connect with and didn't work for me.

Perhaps that will change with repeated viewings, but these are my initial impressions of the film. Overall, I greatly enjoy the framework of the story, the time and setting, the characters and their roles in the story.

It all has a feel of a classic tragic story, and I really bought into that. I really liked Ewan McGregor. I thought he performed wonderfully in both acting and singing. I really felt an emotional connection to his character.

I also thought the costumes were pretty good. However, I had a hard time connecting with Nicole Kidman's character and I didn't think her performance was that great. Thinking back on the story and reflecting on Satine, she is an interesting character, but I just felt like Nicole Kidman was not expressing adequate emotion through the character.

I had troubles connecting with several of the supporting characters as well. Another thing that threw me off was the quick cutting during musical sequences. It was hard to see the dancing and costumes and I thought it really detracted from the musical numbers.

I also found that a few (not all, but just a few) of the special effects were just done so brutally poorly that it took me out of the film for a bit. I know that all of the special effects aren't supposed to be great in this film, that it's a part of the charm, but some were just too cheap looking for me.

Now, I will likely come to forgive or rethink some of these detractors in future viewings (should some occur), but for now I found Moulin Rouge to be an alright film.