I saw a screening last Monday, then saw it again on it's opening night. I'm glad I saw it twice (three times now as of last night), because my opinion of it has improved with each viewing. I still think it's a mess at points, though.
Some random thoughts:
I think I'm in the minority, but I thought Idina gave the best performance of the bunch. I liked Adam a lot, too. I thought Taye was wasted - his poor role has been shredded to bits. He also has the unfortunate distinction of playing the one character in the show we aren't supposed to adore, and it's even worse for him on film than it is on stage. Benny's completely whittled down to nothing, gets denied any sort of redemption and barely gets to sing a note.
I think the movie almost derailed immediately by the starting with "Seasons of Love." Tell me it's an homage to the stage version, tell me it's a prologue, I don't care. It sucks. It's boring. It's kind of creepy. Strangely enough, Thoms is the stagiest of the performers in this scene. She moves weird. She tries too hard. Full disclosure - I've always hated this song, but I'll admit it does work onstage. The opening of this film is so dull and inspired that I'm not sure it ever truly recovers.
We barrel full steam into the title song without a shred of exposition. That said, the song is executed pretty well, and it's certainly exciting. It's marred by Chris Columbus's uniformly lackluster (yet competent) direction.
Why Columbus and Steve Chbosky decided to have half of Mimi's signature song, "Out Tonight," take place with her all bundled up, walking down the street, I'll never know. It doesn't work as her club song, either, except during it's opening chords, when it looks for a moment like it's going to be a recreation of the stage version. It's not, and it's the biggest disappointment in the film.
"Out Tonight" isn't a total wash, as it clicks again at the very end, when Dawson climbs out on her fire escape and wails "at the moon like a cat in heat." The look on Pascal's face as she bursts into the apartment is touching, and it's one of the few moments or sheer excitement in the film. It segues right into "Another Day" and it's satisfying to finally see things start cookin' on screen.
"Another Day" is actually one of my favorite songs in the film. The movie really gets out of its own way for a moment. "Light My Candle" is another winning number. Pascal and Dawson really work well together.
I loved "Over the Moon." Idina really impressed me throughout, though "Take Me or Leave Me" had a strange sit-comy feel to it that I still don't know if I loved or hated.
So much music and recitative has been cut, and yet the damn thing still clocks in at two and a quarter hours. Any time it builds even a hint of momentum, it quickly grinds down to a halt again. Songs appear out of nowhere ("Life Support" is particularly jarring) and often end with a thud.
On stage, Act One was the course of just of few hours while in the film it's about three days. It loses a lot of it urgency that way, and just raises a bunch of questions that no one but me truly gives a crap about (Do they really go to Life Support every day? Why does Angel always take her wig off at those meetings?).
How do they all seem to know each other, yet Roger and Mimi have never met. And why change Mimi's relationship with Benny to two years ago? The fact that she'd have been seventeen aside, weren't they all tight with Benny two years ago? Wouldn't Roger and Mark have met Mimi then?
I really did wind up liking it, but I think the film just draws more attention to the flaws in the piece, rather than fixing the problems inherant in the stage production.
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
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