Devin Brown
Based on Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” and Jonathan Larson’s revolutionary “rock” musical, “Rent” tells the story of a group of bohemians living in New York City’s East Village struggling to live life, pay the rent and deal with the AIDS epidemic.
The story centers on Roger (Adam Pascal) and Mark (Anthony Rapp), two roommates.
While a past heartbreak has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film.
In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS and modern day life in one unbelievably powerful story.
At the beginning I thought that the film was going to be awkward. After all, the visual of people throwing burning eviction notices from their windows is a bit much. But anyone who has seen the play already knows how theatrical it is.
From that point on, the movie picks up steam. The vocals are all awesome. But after the hype about Rosario Dawson being amazing, I thought she would have been better.
I was surprised that the movie was PG-13 considering how coarse it was: drug use, nudity, foul language. After seeing it at the AMC Promenade Saturday, the entire audience was sobbing.
Being an enormous fan of the stage show, I was cynical about the movie. I figured that Chris Columbus would botch it somehow in this “Harry Potter” world–with its dire music– but it was so much more powerful and moving than I ever imagined it would be.
The last 10 minutes are extremely haunting and the images stand still in my mind.
“Rent” is a much more loyal version and moving experience than “Chicago” or any other recent Broadway adaptations.
The vocal performances are some of the best in any film. Amazing is how emotionally glued to the screen people got and the flow from dialogue to musical performance and back, without losing the story.
Musical number to musical number, the audience praised and even sang along. Although the movie dealt with pressing issues that took place more than decade ago, anyone will gladly excuse some dated material because the music and film are so powerful.
Not just one cast member stood out. It was the whole ensemble, just perfect for the movie. The opening with everyone on a stage singing “525,600 minutes…” was incredible.
It was a metaphor acknowledging that is was a play, not just a play a great performance and that the film will do it justice. Believe me it did and then some.
After seeing the film, moviegoers leave wiping tears from their eyes, no doubt thinking “how do I measure a year?”
“Rent” is this year’s best film, a must see for ages 15 and up.
Also starring Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms and Taye Diggs.