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November 24, 2005

Rent Rent Rent Rent, Rent

After much anticipation (previous post) yesterday, the moment finally came.

With our office traditionally closing early the day before Thanksgiving, Melissa and I had been planning on getting our butts to the movie theatre ASAP on opening day. We got tickets for the 3:50 show, and roped a handful of other folks to go along with us - some just as excited as we were.

I was pretty sure that I would cry my way through the entire movie, but that wasn't the case. I wasn't as blown away as I thought I'd be, but I definitely have to say that it's becoming more and more powerful in retrospect.

Alone, it was incredible to see these actors get to recreate these roles that they created 10 years ago. To see names in the credits of folks he worked on the original production. To know first hand how cool it is that this thing that took over their lives 10 years ago, that seemed like just another gig, became so huge. Launched careers. Spawned marriages. Became an inescapable (for better or worse, and I'm sure sometimes seemingly for the worst) part of who they are.

Also to know that some people only know these folks from very different roles. I know this is a shocker for some of us, but some people don't even know that Rent was a broadway show first. Or if they do, that the "guy from Law and Order" or the "kid from Adventures in Babysitting" or the "jamaican hottie from Stella Got Her Groove Back" were in it. I love that people will go because they love those actors and get something very, very different.

And I can't even talk about Wilson. Some of you know why.

Overall it was great. Amazing to see the story come to life on screen in multiple locations. It was clear that they sat down and looked at the story FIRST. They weren't afraid to leave peices of the stage version aside. In the end, it served them well.

***SPOILERS*** Even if you already know the story like the back of your hand, ***SPOILERS*** about how the movie is different.

Loved the choice to open the movie on the stage. The one and only nod to where it all started. I liked it.

It was really cool to hear the opening number with SO MANY VOICES. Same for all the "group" numbers.

I was a fan of the spoken lines. I think they did an excellent job of walking the line, fully realizing that some things that worked on stage or in a "stage musical" setting, weren't going to play on the screen - or could be better served on the screen. It may just be becuase I know the story so well (I'll be anxious to hear from folks who don't know the whole album by heart), but I felt they successfully went between speaking and singing.

I missed the answering machine messages (which is odd, b/c they are kind of annoying). I often found myself waiting for the rhyme and then it wouldn't come, and I would miss it, but then I'd be glad. Ok, now I'm repeating the paragraph above.

There were significant pieces of the stage version missing (I missed "Happy New Year" among them), but again, when you thought about them, really, it was clear why they left them by the wayside. Speaking of "happy New Year," LOVED the Wiz store behind them in the scene where that song would have gone.

There were a few moments (the end of "No Day But Today," Rodger driving across country, and consequently singing from the mountains of Santa Fe) that bordered on the edge of musical thatre movie hell, but I bought them anyway. Anxious to hear if I bought them only because I'm willing to give the movie slack, or I thought they were on the edge of musical theatre movie hell because I'm a musical theatre snob.

Along those same lines, it was also clear to me a few times who the really great actors were versus those who, well, just had trouble making the whole "I'm in a movie, I'm in real life, but yes, I am TOTALLY singing" work. Rosario and Wilson looked challenged a couple times. However, Jesse L. could sing the ALPHABET and I'd believe it were part of normal conversation.

I think my favorite thing was the restaging of "Take Me of Leave Me." Though, that many black folks in the Greenwich Country Club? I don't think so...

The way they approached "Tango Maureen" made the song finally work for me. Similar to how I HATE Chicago the stage show, but within the film medium, LOVE IT.

I also loved them all coming home TRASHED on Jan 1 to find the place padlocked. That was definitely my favorite Wilson moment.

Ok. We're now watching Roll Bounce and I can no longer look away. And the peach cobbler and ice cream just came out.

Posted by nikl at November 24, 2005 11:55 AM

Comments

Okay, so I have to admit that I'm surprised Nicole liked it as much as she did. The one thing I TOTALLY agree with is that it's stronger in retrospect. My husband (who'd never seen the show on stage) and I saw it together and agreed three hours later that although we weren't singing any of the music (surprising for me), that we felt as though we really knew these people up close after our journey with them.

What I liked:
The way the "family" really was always together
"The Tango Maureen", "Santa Fe" in the subway and "La Vie Boheme".
Seeing them all together again - what a nostalgic trip!

I liked the moments when music was used as score underneath montage.

What I didn't like:

The fact that Chris Columbus directed it. This guy has obviously never directed a musical and maybe never SEEN a musical because the timing was all wrong - each song sort of petered out and then faded (slowly to black). The lighting esp outside in the street at night was horrifying.

I hated the fact that they cut out some of the rhyme and spoke some of the lines...but still kind of spoke them in rhythm because they couldn't get used to not singing them.

There were times when them singing TO each other (including the Santa Fe thing that Nicole referenced) that ALL bordered on Musical Hell in my opinion and I winced and thought "Maybe Rent shouldn't be seen this close up."

I also realized how WEAK the whole Roger/writing his song storyline was. After numerous times attending the stage verious and listening to the soundtrack I'm not sure I EVER realized this whole "Roger's trying to write his song" thing. And although C. Columbus tried to ramp it up a bit by showing Roger trying to write on the bus, it still wasn't all that and WHY? Because the song is NOWHERE AS GOOD AS GLORY! And so that fact that the frustration song is better than the final product is just HORRIBLE.

I also still wish Mimi would have died but I thought she handled the coming back to life WAY better than Daphne Rubin-Vega and overall I loved her WAY MORE than Daphne.

I missed the climax where Roger and Mark yell at each other about not seeing and feeling or whatever...

Overall, I'm just not sure it was a worthwhile experience. If they could have found a way to put the songs in context like in Chicago I think it could have worked. The only numbers that worked, in my opinion, were when they realistically would have been singing in front of others (as mentioned above) or when two people were intimately singing to each other...that worked too. But for instance the scene where Roger was on the balcony and the rest were in the street singing to each other? I thought I would kill myself.

Posted by: Kristen Coury at December 2, 2005 03:49 PM

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