CapnHook revisits the RENT movie — Page 2

"Love Heals" did play over the closing credits on the print I saw the night the movie opened nationally.

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I didn't say they were GOOD movies...just some of my favorite.

"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."

I was aware he posted on BWW at some time but I never read the threads nor the "WELCOME ANTHONY RAPP" thread(s). At least I don't ever remember participating in those discussions. I'm having difficulty finding the thread via the search function on the board...

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I loved the film until I saw the show

Updated On: 11/29/09 at 09:47 PM

I got into the show via the movie. So it's kind of solely responsible for getting me into Broadway in general. (I probably would have eventually anyway, as I always loved movie musicals, but I can't lie and say Rent wasn't the catalyst.)

Obviously I liked it. But I almost think its failure to deliver is part of what got me so into the stage show. Maybe if it were the perfect movie I might not have delved as deep.

My friend and I watched it a few months back after rereading The Weekly Adventures of Jesse L. Martin and getting extremely drunk. It was way fun.

I like how Columbus decided to set it in the 80s because that's when he lived in NYC, even though it made many references throughout the film make pretty much no sense.

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at the beginning of the movie, you can see Mimi and Angel acknowledge each other.. I think it's after Angel meets Collins... i didn't notice it until someone brought it up.. but i thought the same thing as you... i wondered how Angel and mimi knew each other...

They... live in the same neighborhood? That's one of those things that people often feel goes unaddressed in the show (if you see it, it's very subtle and for a split second), and I think they purposefully tried to highlight it on film so it didn't seem like a plot hole later on. Isn't it one of those big Renthead questions, how do Angel and Mimi know each other? Because there's a moment later on where they just seem to know each other without being officially introduced by anybody else, and I remember reading lots of things with people wondering about that, because they felt you didn't see evidence of it.

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I didn't really think of it as a plot hole. I mean, a lot of stuff happens offstage and considering MIMI lives right upstairs of Roger & Mark, I'm sure they're not like complete strangers, you know? It would make sense that Mimi has probably seen Angel around the Lower East Side here and there. I mean, Angel meets Mark and Roger and basically within a few mins they're singing a song together, ha.

And what a waste of Anna Deveare Smith!

"but as soon as it becomes a framework, we end up with a whole lot of dramaturgical problems"

Really?

it's RENT, folks. The entire show is a plot hole. It wouldn't be the same show if a legit Dramturgical overhaul occured. I'm aware of Larson's dramaturg (aka: his "ghost writer") but that woman was a joke.

I'm not sure RENT is meant to address or, more importantly, ever resolve the dramaturgical problems and/or questions. It is what it is - an edgy rock musical with little substance, in terms of actual material, and relies heavily on emotional ejaculation & controversial fluff.

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watching the extras and hearing the family talk about how Chris Columbus was the best choice to do the movie... made me wonder if they REALLY thought that! kinda sucks if they just faked it for the camera...

Starting the movie with "Seasons of Love" pretty much derails the movie from the start. 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. Her eyes roll around like she's on ecstasy. The opening of this film is so dull and inspired that I'm not sure it could ever truly recover.

We barrel full steam into the title song without a shred of exposition.

Why half of "Out Tonight" takes place with Mimi all bundled up, skipping 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 one of the biggest disappointments in the film.

The song sort of clicks at the very end, when Dawson climbs out on her fire escape and wails "at the moon like a cat in heat," the aforementioned robotics of ever autotuned voice notwithstanding. When it segues right into "Another Day" and it feels like things may 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, but we soon come crashing back to Columbus's totally boring movie.

"Take Me or Leave Me" had a strange sit-comy feel to it, with everyone mugging and following Maureen and Joanne around.

"Santa Fe" is one of the weirdest songs in the film. If any song called for a dream sequence, it was this one (instead of the stupid one in "Tango: Maureen"). I know a lot of people love this song, but it's never been a favorite of mine, and I wish this had been cut from the movie instead of "Christmas Bells."

So much music and recitative was 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 opens the movie up to a lot of questions.(Do they really go to Life Support every day? Why does Angel always take her wig off at those meetings?).

I saw a sneak preview and I saw it in its regular run. Neither print I saw I had "Love Heals" on it.

Updated On: 11/30/09 at 01:04 PM

Everybody has pretty much stated my thoughts on the film, but I'll put my two cents in anyway.

Starting the movie with "Seasons of Love" pretty much derails the movie from the start.

I couldn't agree more. If "Seasons of Love" couldn't be properly integrated into the film then it should have been cut.

Chris Columbus was absolutely the wrong director for Rent. Some his directing choices were just flat out dumb. I had initially blamed Stephen Chbosky for that mess of a screenplay until I read one of his earlier drafts that was light years better than the other one, and I found out that it was Columbus who was mainly responsible for changing so much of it. It actually almost made me mad because if they had stuck to the earlier draft, the movie might have turned out better. Sure it probably would've been rated R, alienating a lot of Rent's fanbase, but it would a much better movie than what we got.

The OBC was entirely too old to play the parts on screen. They should have gotten a fresh cast of twenty-somethings. And some Broadway actors just do not photograph well on screen. Adam Pascal is one of them. Idina Menzel is another. The whole movie is just a hot mess. It's practically unwatchable.

EDIT: Reading some of those old Rent threads was a hoot! I'd joined around that time but I didn't really post that often so I missed a lot of the action. Nevertheless it was great fun reading those heated Rent threads and seeing so many people (many of whom no longer post) proclaim how good the movie is.

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Updated On: 11/30/09 at 01:53 PM