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Anthony Rapp,
Anthony Rapp,
Adam Pascal,
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Chris Columbus,
Chris Columbus
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: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
: Musicals
: English, French
: English, French
see additional details...
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This film adaptation of the Broadway musical based loosely on Puccini's opera La Bohème features many members of the original cast. It follows a year in the lives of seven friends living the disappearing Bohemian lifestyle in New York's East Village. AIDS and both its physical and emotional complications pervade the lives of Roger (Adam Pascal), Mimi (Rosario Dawson), Tom (Jesse L. Martin), and Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia); Maureen (Idina Menzel) deals with her chronic infidelity through performance art; her partner, Joanne (Tracie Thoms), wonders if their relationship is worth the trouble; Benjamin (Taye Diggs) has sold out his Bohemian ideals in exchange for a hefty income and is on the outs with his former friends; and Mark (Anthony Rapp), an aspiring filmmaker, feels like an outsider to life in general, always behind the camera recording the events but never playing a part. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
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by talltale
March 1, 2006 - 4:50 PM PST
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4 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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If you REALLY loved the legitimate theatre version of RENT (as opposed to simply giving it the lip-service that I think many have done), I can't see how you will not embrace the movie--which keeps Jonathan Larson's wonderful score front and center and does it full justice. When I heard that Chris Columbus was to direct, my heart dropped a bit, although I have enjoyed some of CC's work ("Adventures in Babysitting," "Mrs. Doubtfire").
From the opening scene onwards, however, with only a few small missteps (Menzel's "performance art" scene does not work as well as on-stage, but her duet with her lover at the commitment ceremony works ever better; Heredia's table dance was spikier on stage), the movie proceeds like a house afire. The original cast--save Rosario Dawson, who is very nearly as terrific as was Daphne Rubin-Vega but necessarily much younger--gives its all. And that's enough. This is a sentimental story (well, "La Boheme" isn't?), but it's done with enough wit and irony to keep a sophisticated audience on its toes. If the lyrics are not up to those of, say, "Wicked," they're plenty good enough, and the music remains exceptional. Any movie that gives me consistent, periodic goose bumps of sheer pleasure mixed with enormous emotion and joy gets my vote as a "keeper."
One thing many of RENT's critics fail to mention in their screaming about how "untimely" the movie is: it takes place over fifteen years ago, when young people in the US were still dying of AIDS at an enormous rate. This, rather than the kids' refusal to pay rent or vacate an east village loft, provides the emotional heart and meaning of the movie, and--together with the score, cast and direction--makes the entire project work. |
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