CapnHook revisits the RENT movie

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 2:18pm

FOREWARD: I hate to begin yet ANOTHER discussion of the film, especially after it's been put to bed for so long, but I recently concluded a community production of the stage show where I was given the opportunity to examine the script in detail. I promised not to revisit the feature film, final-show-on-broadway film, nor my couple of bootlegs until after the production was over. Today, I watched the feature film. And my opinion of it has completely changed.

PREFACE: The feature film was my first introduction to RENT, having only seen clips of songs prior from the Broadway show. I finally saw the show on Broadway October 8, 2006. I HATED the production. Not because of the material, but because of the horrific performances by most of the ensemble. My next encounter with RENT was seeing the filmed last-show-on-Broadway in a movie theater. I loved it.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE FILM NOW:

- Horrible!! It was difficult to sit through much of the time!!

- Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, and Jesse L. Martin (as much as I love his voice) should not have been cast. Especially Pascal. I also had issues with Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel at times.

^- To speak generally, the above-mentioned actors did not dig deep enough into their roles. And that is surprising since they CREATED THEM and had played them for so long. In film, everything is so specific. The audience can read behind your eyeballs. SO different from stage acting. They simply just didn't have enough going on moment-by-moment. It was laughable.

- Chris Columbus, a director whose body of work includes most of my favorite films (HOME ALONE movies, MRS. DOUBTFIRE, BICENTENNIAL MAN, STEPMOM, the HARRY POTTERs he did), made some of the worst decisions ever. First off, when I originally saw the film I hated the ending. I immediately had the thought that the end should have been the actors on stage again in their spotlights. Low and behold, in the alternate ending on the DVD, that was his original plan and it would have worked SOO much better!!

- Screenplay issues:
^- The film had mostly songs but suddenly following the I'll Cover You Reprise, there is distinct SUNG DIALOGUE. The only other time in the film there had been sung dialogue was in Light My Candle, but LMC works. The fight in the cemetery did not.
^-In "No Day But Today" Angel, Mark, and Collins come around the corner to comfort Mimi. This was ultra confusing. WHY? Later at the protest, there is a very distinct ad-lib by Roger telling Mimi what Mark looks like. But he knows that she already met him in No Day But Today, so why is he describing him? Also in this scene, Mimi screams "Angel!" in surprise to see him. It's supposed to be informative to the audience that they already knew each other, however they met already in No Day But Today. So I have absolutely no idea WHAT the history is.
^- Keeping Larson's lyrics but taking away the music made for uneffective dialogue. If you weren't going to have his other sung dialogue be sung, then rewrite it.

I now see the feature film for what it truly is -- a pitiful attempt by a director who didn't have the balls to adapt the masterpiece by a dead beloved playwright. I think it would have been more of a tribute to leave Jonathan Larson's stage work speak for him and to ADAPT THE MATERIAL for the film medium.

I have many other thoughts but can't express myself like I want to at the moment, so I'll end this here. I apologize for bringing up the topic again.

PS: I could have sworn that in the original release of the film, the song "Love Heals" played over the ending credits. But on the DVD, it was no where to be found. Did they change it or am I making this up?

[Gobstopper]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 2:27pm

I believe "Love Heals" was intended to be used for the ending credits, but they decided not to use it before the film's theatrical release. So, no, it was never there.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 2:28pm

I'm not getting involved in any discussion of the film, I'm tired of it; I know where I stand, and don't feel like talking about it anymore. But yes, Love Heals played over the credits in the theaters. It's also on the film soundtrack.

ETA: Really? I remember it being there. I saw a pre-release screening, though, so maybe that's why?

Updated On: 11/29/09 at 02:28 PM

[winston89]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 2:29pm

I believe that Love Heals was never played over the original credits, but it was a bonus track on the soundtrack.

One of my major complaints was that Columbus took out a lot of stuff such as Halloween and the second half of Goodbye Love because he thought it was TOO dramatic after Angle's death. It's Rent, it's meant to be dramatic.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 2:38pm

While I don't hate it as much as you, it IS a mess and I find that with each repeated viewing it loses a little of its luster, what faint luster it ever had in the first place.

"Take Me Or Leave Me" and "Today For U" are the only songs that work. I suppose "I Should Tell You" works as well, though that shaky zoom during the bridge always bugs me. "Over The Moon" and "La Vie Boheme" are as good as could have been expected. Sarah Silverman is fun.

The rest is tepid to execrable with "Out Tonight" almost working save for the street shot cutaway and "I'll Cover You (reprise)" packing a punch even with weird line readings and a questionable location choice.

Not a good film, but not absolutely terrible. It should have been SO much more... if only we had gotten that Spike Lee cast (Raul! Audra! Christina! Justin! Britney!) and Spike Lee!

P
Updated On: 11/29/09 at 02:38 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 3:11pm

Y'all just want Anthony Rapp to come back and defend it again!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 3:12pm

ReNT is the best movie ever cant wait to see it on stage and dvd.... ReNt

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 3:27pm

Pgenre -- totally agreed. "Over the Moon" worked well until the riot.

blaxx -- Anthony Rapp defended the film on BWW??

[blaxx]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:07pm

Did he ever! He was pretty decisive too and didn't take negative comments well at all.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:11pm

blaxx don't you remember he was plugging his book in nearly every post too? I think it was cruel to build up the fans like that and watch them inevitably fall when the sh*ttastic movie came out.

P

[Kad]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:15pm

Honestly, my favorite part of the movie is the utter ridiculousness of "What You Own". Nothing beats Adam Pascal singing on a canyon. Sheer camp.

Or an entire city block singing "Rent". What, nobody's going to pay rent? Demanding someone pay rent is evil?

[blaxx]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:16pm

How could I forget! Whiteboy Spice (aka. Anthony Rapp) was such a cry baby!

Courtesy of Lizzie "I-rule-because-I-save-great-stuff" Curry:

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/843081.html

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:35pm

Or an entire city block singing "Rent". What, nobody's going to pay rent?

I liked how Mark and Roger were singing the song independently of one another as it starts, even before Mark sees the eviction notice.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:40pm

The original screen draft was much better, but it veered too much from the original musical for the Larson family to okay it. PM me if you want to know more.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:42pm

Is it the one with a character called Jonathon? That one wasn't real.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:46pm

"Love Heals" played over the credits in the theatrical release. Either you forgot, you're confused, or saw a special screening.

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:47pm

I like how Columbus professed to be a HUGE fan of the original stage show going so far as to claim he'd seen it numerous times and then on the film's DVD commentary shouts himself out as being absolutely clueless when he asked Pascal and Rapp to elaborate how things were done in the stage version. Updated On: 11/29/09 at 04:47 PM

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 4:55pm

The one with characters based on Jonathan Larson and company was a fan-made fake, positioned as the sequel to a fan screenplay to tick...tick...BOOM!

The script I have is dated April 14, 2000, labeled the first draft, and credited only to Stephen Chbosky.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 5:09pm

""Love Heals" played over the credits in the theatrical release. Either you forgot, you're confused, or saw a special screening."

Uh, no, it never did. I saw both a preview and normally in theaters, and neither time did "Love Heals" play, just the instrumental music that you hear on the DVD.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 5:25pm

1. People here saw a lot of different kinds of early screenings; just because you saw the regular screening and an early screening doesn't mean you can definitively say it never ran with the movie. I remember staying to hear it the first time I saw the film. It was an international critics screening the week before the official release. For whatever reason, it may not have been used in all the early screenings. I have no idea why, but I absolutely did hear it used.

2. I don't think that Chris Columbus is like, a bad person or anything, but I do think he has proven himself to be kind of a blockhead.

3. And I think it's very silly to accuse Anthony of having intentionally "built the film up" to watch people be disappointed in it. You could certainly have taken him to task for not being objective about the movie, but... I don't know how people could logically have expected him to be, honestly. And I think he knew that. But if you didn't want to trust him to be objective, then you should have been taking what he was saying with a grain of salt in the first place.

4. Who could ever forget The Cliff?

... so much for not getting sucked in.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 5:33pm

So many stupid things in it, I can only single out one as being the first serious deal-braker:

When Collins is being chased by the muggers, he decides to escape them by running INTO a dark alley.

One of dumbest moments in American cinema.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 5:35pm

"Uh, no, it never did."

Incorrect. It did.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 5:56pm

blaxx -- Anthony Rapp defended the film on BWW??

CapnHook, you were posting on BWW at the time. I find it incredibly hard to believe you were the only person who didn't see anyone mentioning it anywhere on the boards, AND missed out on the giant WELCOME ANTHONY RAPP! threads that dominated the main and off-topic board for months.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 6:00pm

Then he briefly returned as WaxLion.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/29/09 at 6:17pm

I was just thinking about WaxLion the other day, hah. I think that's still one of the great BWW mysteries for me.