“Rent” realism breaks musical mold
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical from the early 1990s, “Rent” is a poetic story about a group of youthful friends living in the slums of the Big Apple doing their best to survive. Although they all spend ample time singing about the excitement and potential of their lives, they experience enormous heartache through unemployment, drug addiction, broken hearts, AIDS and the stressful likelihood of eviction notices. Featuring an incredibly rich cast of characters, along with beautifully soaring musical numbers, “Rent” is a mediocre treat for Broadway lovers but will probably taste much more mediocre for non-fans.
Rosario Dawson (“Sin City”), the leading female of the film, is perfect as the mischievous table dancer, Mimi. This is by far her best role yet, showing wonderfully smooth range as a flirtatious vixen to a broken down victim of heroin. Other characters include the awkward filmmaker, Mark (Anthony Rapp, “School Ties”) his ex-girlfriend, Maureen (Idina Menzel, “The Tollbooth”) and Maureen’s new lover, Joanne (Tracie Thoms, “The Warrior Class”). With the exception of Dawson and Taye Diggs (“Chicago”) as the stone-faced superintendent, the cast is made up of relatively unknown actors with everyone fitting comfortably into their role giving consistent, touching performances. This ensemble creates great chemistry, which makes this film a surprisingly intimate experience for audience members. The absence of lavish, sparkling costumes and swooping camera shots also helps it to avoid clichés.
“Rent” is not just another run-of-the-mill movie musical. At least it tries not to be. The director (Chris Columbus, “Stepmom”) injects a healthy dose of realism into the storyline to help make it feel less like Broadway material. Very little dancing is used to liven up the musical numbers (something that is usually a staple of musicals) and so the characters belt out their dreams while walking down the street, sitting in subway trains or leaning triumphantly over fire escapes. This helps give more attention to the song lyrics and the emotional development of the characters who sing them.
Sadly though, the music has a down side. Over half of the film’s length is filled with singing, almost to the point where there is little to no dialogue coming from anyone. This sure makes the film sound nice, but such a large amount of music prohibits the story from progressing so you never really feel like you are moving along. And when you do feel like you are moving along it usually feels like you’re wandering. All the actors could have given more textured performances but everyone on screen is having so much fun singing at the top of their lungs that plot development gets neglected.
Despite the imbalance of musical performance versus acting, “Rent” displays a thoughtful look at cultural ethics as the characters explore their artistic ambitions while trying to spurn the dominance of corporate America. For so many of us, our friends are all that we have and “Rent” is a heartwarming reminder of this truth. Through love, death and anger, these friends realize that life is bearable because of their love for each other.
Grade: B