Storyline: "Rent is
about a community celebrating life in the face of death and AIDS" at the end
of the millennium. So said Jonathan Larson who wrote this story of squatters
in a New York East Village garret on Christmas Eve.
For someone who knows Puccini, Rent's
borrowings from the opera are minimal, hardly crucial. The parallels include
a cadre of destitute wannabe artists struggling for respect and work in the
Big City, the hero and heroine meeting cute over a candle, the tight
community threatened by disloyalty and disease, and a dramatic finale
featuring a distressed Mimi. Yet this updating is really very different,
principally because it presents a hip and (overdressed) New York subculture,
blended into an ensemble piece with much more complex romantic associations
(including two gay couples). Moreover, the protagonists are affected by
fresh health dilemmas and represent a considerable range of ethnic
backgrounds. As with any musical transferred to film, there is the
inevitable "opening up" of scenes for the screen and substituting up-close
grit for what was once stylized on stage. I'm not sure whether such
naturalistic scenes add much to the content of the picture.
The music, as noted, seems mostly adequate
show tune stuff, juiced and gussied up with amplified guitars and moaning
deliveries to simulate rock. Most of it is not unpleasant, just not
memorable to this listener. Some of it is rancid, like a slinky hootchie
number delivered by Mimi (Rosario Dawson) in a show dance dive. There are,
however, numbers that stand out, too, such as the vibrant, pistol-packin'
"La Vie Boheme" performed by the ensemble in a rough-and-tumble cafe, and a
lament delivered at a funeral by the character Collins (Jesse L. Martin of
TV's "Law and Order").
The cast, surprisingly for Hollywood
musicals, has been transferred almost intact from the original New York
production. Only two of the eight principals are newcomers, the current
screen hottie Rosario Dawson, and Joanne, played wittily by Tracie Thoms as
one half of a restive lesbian couple. So, overall, we get a chance to see
some true musical pros, like Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, and Idina Menzel,
acquit themselves well with voice and acting panache. It's a surprise, too,
and a pleasure to see actors like Martin and Taye Diggs, so well known now
from film and television work, return to musical roots many didn't know they
had. The whole cast's ebullience and their genuine camaraderie and affection
for each other is the cement that keeps this Rent from being too
cheap.
Music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson.
Screenplay by Steve Chbosky based on the musical by Jonathan Larson.
Cinematography by Stephen Goldblat. Production design by Howard Cummings.
Costume design by Aggie Guerard Rodgers. Film editing by Richard Pearson.
Principal cast: Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse
L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Tracie Thoms. |
