CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Rent

Director

Chris Columbus

Year

2005

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

A man named Jonathan Larson created a hit musical in the 90’s but wasn’t able to witness the success it achieved on Broadway. He died just as the show was ready to be shown to the world. When it opened, its subject matter was cause of much controversy. By today’s standards the story is not as shocking, but it hasn’t lost its power because it’s a way of showing the world what life was like when AIDS appeared and started to spread out among certain groups. Its transformation to the big screen took a lot of years to come together, but I’m glad it did for I loved experiencing and embracing what millions of others have over more than a decade.

Roger (Adam Pascal) and Mark (Anthony Rapp) are a pair of artists struggling in East Village New York as their landlord and former friend Benjamin (Taye Diggs) is about to evict them if they don’t pay the rent. Roger is still coping with living with AIDS, while Mark hasn’t gotten over his breakup with Maureen (Idina Menzel), who left him for a woman, Joanne (Tracie Thoms). A friend of them, Collins (Jesse L. Martin), comes to visit for Christmas, and soon meets Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), who goes through life as a drag queen. Both are sick, and so is Mimi (Rosario Dawson), a stripper who lives downstairs and who really likes Roger.

Rent is, as everyone knows, a musical. The movie is structured as a series of musical numbers intertwined with just the necessary dialogue. I have to be honest when I tell you I didn’t find the music that stirring. There are certainly a couple of songs that stand out, but I would not want to listen to the movie’s (or the show’s, for that matter) songs without the images to accompany them.

My favorite moments in the movie are two that feature the great “Seasons of Love”, and another one with the show-stopper “Maureen Tango”. There’s a funeral during the movie, and it certainly is a rousing sequence. “La Vie Boheme” proves to be a fun number as well. But apart from those I can’t really remember much else, except of course for Maureen’s bizarre protest performance.

I guess part of the trouble I had with the movie is that I didn’t root for most of its main characters. There are a lot of relationships and problems in the movie, but most characters are only touched upon superficially. I thought it was because the music didn’t let me get into their inner selves, but then I remembered that I’ve seen musicals where I’ve really identified with the characters. The stagy feeling is hard to avoid, and director Chris Columbus does not manage to make of this a fluid motion picture.

But it’s not all negative. The movie is affecting, well shot, well acted and entertaining. I had a good time with it. I appreciated how the musical numbers were staged. I liked some of the songs and lyrics. But it didn’t come through as a whole.

As performances go, it’s amazing how you can instantly notice who has movie appeal and who doesn’t. Rosario Dawson steals the movie and she’s the only member, apart from Thoms, who is not from the original stage show. Idina Menzel also shows signs of amazing charisma, and I’m glad she’s finally turning her attention to a career in movies. Taye Diggs appears briefly, but shows a lot of presence. And the original Rent members are all good. They certainly know their roles by heart.

“No day but today.”

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