'Rent' Movie Review (Unmarked Spoilers)

[innerSpaceman]

Ugh, I pretty much hated this movie. This is coming from someone completely unfamiliar with the show or the songs, but it just screeeeaaamed Broadway Show That Should Never Have Been Adapted to Screen. In fact, it seemed that it wasn't adapted to the screen, and was merely a filming of material that would only work on stage.

The songs were nice, I suppose, but utterly forgettable. The characters were sketched thinly, the plot non-existent, and the ensemble-for-the-sake-of-ensemble tale was uninvolving.

The only performance that stood out was Jesse L. Martin's. The only numbers I liked were "Take Me or Leave Me" (which, despite the locale shift alluded to by GC, seemed interestingly staged and a lot of fun) and "Cover Me," which I found very sweet. Sorry, but "La Vie Boehme" was overwrought and borderline embarassing.



Oh, and Mr. Pascale was cute only in the short-hair flashback.



* * * * *

Chicago, on the other hand, was brilliantly and extensively adapted for the film medium ... and it paid off. I LOVE that movie, and think it was deserving of a Best Picture nomination (and, thus, also a potential win - which it happened to achieve).

* * * * *

But Rent??? Meh.

Chris Columbus is, d'uh, a hack. And any idiot should have seen that this pale story of senseless ensemble soap-opera and wall-to-wall sound-alike songs is strictly stage material that should never have been movie-filmed.

I guess I have to assume that all the hoopla and huzzah over Rent, the stage musical was deserved ... but this movie did not give me one iota of why that would be.






Edited to add: It seems that the moviegoing public agrees with my take on the material: Despite being arguably more famous in the current pop cultural climate than 'Chicago' was ... 'Rent' performed dismally at the box office and is one pathetic weekend away from being a certified bomb.