Emcee on the RENT movie

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 12:58pm

Spoilers, obviously. So proceed with caution if you really insist upon knowing nothing. I think some of what I have to say may allow people to take comfort, though. I'm not spoiling much more than what's already been said, but the warning's there so I don't get people jumping down my throat.

This isn't really a review. Not for this. It's just a way for me to gather my thoughts, and put them out there for anyone who wants to see. Besides the fact that I don't know how to review film, or to judge necessarily what a "good" movie is very well, my response to this is far less critical and far more emotional -- and far more of what it is as Rent than anything else, if that should make sense.

Before I proceed to detail, I'll answer the big question. Yes, I liked the movie. Very, very very much. There were certainly things that were not exactly as I pictured them in my head, but there's nothing wrong with that. Now the process continues in sort of seeing it again and getting used to it, I think. And no, I didn't think it was absolutely perfect, in that sense, but that's okay. I certainly had issues with some things, but they were very small things, and overall, I think it's beautiful. It's very emotional, and very ALIVE.

A lot of people know that over the past year, I've been caught up rather personally in the production of the movie. (It made little logical sense to me to sit there and watch the scenes I saw film -- absolute surrealism.) Many people also know that I don't change my mind easily. So for this year to have gone by, and me to go from not wanting to see or talk about the movie to doing a complete turnaround, I think is no small thing to be said. It certainly took a long time, and even up until right before it started last night, I was petrified. All of the nervousness I should've been feeling while people around me were freaking out had hit me over the past few days -- I felt like I'd run into a wall. Everything that had happened to me this year -- this year of anticipation, fear, excitement, hope, love, and a hell of a lot of faith -- could've just crashed and burned right there.

I cried. But not the way I thought I would. I thought I'd be in tears from the very first notes until the end credits. I cried straight through Glory, and then from Without You on. The opening credits are silent, and that gave me a minute to realize that this was IT. One shot. And just like it wasn't real to me to see the actors' names on their chairs on the set, it wasn't real to me to see those names on a huge movie screen. But even when it started, I could do nothing but smile. I didn't feel real, after all of this time and all of the emotion I've poured into having faith in this movie, to see Rent actually on a movie screen, there, existing -- but it was at the same time very, very real.

The opening is so powerful. Seasons of Love works just as well at the beginning of the movie than it does as an Act II opener on stage. It sets up what you're going to see, and I think it's absolutely perfect. But still, for the first ten minutes or so, the only response I had was to smile. I had a very "I'm not really here..." feeling. It's odd, certainly.

I'll talk about the acting first, I think. It is phenomenal, but I don't know that anyone expected less, especially of the originals. I've never seen a Collins/Angel pair with that kind of chemistry, as good as the people that I've seen play the roles are. Wilson exudes this beautiful happiness simply for being alive, and Jesse was so warm. You can read in their eyes this very simple happiness just to be together. I've never, ever seen a Maureen that is funny in the way that Idina is. She's comic relief, but without being intentionally funny. She's funny to us because she's so serious about who she is and what she does. And that's different than the people on stage who get up there and act like fools to get laughs. Tracie and Rosario are both absolute gifts to this cast -- Rosario sounds even better on a huge movie sound system. Out Tonight was one of my favorite scenes. She is absolutely stunning, captivating, and just HOT. She plays a very flirtacious Mimi, and makes it clear that she's caught between having to grow up and still wanting to be a girl. I like that about her portrayal -- it makes something about Mimi more likable, in a way, because you see how young she is. It almost makes it feel more like this is a situation that falls upon her by a domino effect, rather than something she put upon herself entirely. She has less edge, though things HAVE gone wrong, but that's okay. It works; it makes her a bit more tragic, especially when you see that she is trying to better herself. And Tracie just completely nailed that part. Her delivery of lines that can sometimes be too far overboard, especially in the Tango scene were great. She and Anthony had the perfect amount and type of connection there. It was one of my favorite scenes, actually. The re-imagination works, and it's sexy as hell. I don't think I've ever seen a Mark on stage that I've really, truly loved and felt connected to. And then there's Anthony. You can see, in his portrayal, how deeply he cares for Roger, and how he feels like he's got a responsiblity to be there for him and help him, and that Roger is NOT okay. Mark, for some reason, is the character that I feel like gets away without personality most often. Not the case here. Nor did I expect it to be. And Adam... is... I don't even know what word to use. It's always been the case that he emotes best through music, but it's fine, because most of his camera time is singing. But he truly, truly is great. Roger is his baby, no doubt, and other than the fact that he can't dance, there was nothing he did that I disliked. His Roger is damaged, broken, hurt, and has this painfully palpable sense of guilt. I love him, but I think I'm also pretty critical of him, and last night, I was so, so proud of him. It hurt me so much to see him cry, but I think that goes to show how good he was.

I think an important thing about the movie is its pacing. One of the things that stuck with me the most was that after Angel dies, there's this pause and the screen is dark. You can feel this tension in the theatre, and you can hear people crying. The pause is something you don't get in that way on stage, but it gives you a moment -- one that you need, quite frankly -- to process what just happened. There are a few other instances like that, but that's the one that was most effective, to me at least.

Something about the pacing that was odd, though, was that it felt very FAST. Maybe it's because I'm predisposed to love these characters, and I wanted to see more of them, but I also think that it's part of getting used to the translation between stage and film. On stage, when you're watching someone sing a song, it feels like real time, in a way. But in the movie, when there are other things to look at, and they're in "real" places, doing things, there's more to concentrate on than just that song, causing it to pass by very quickly. On stage, for example, you see Roger stand there and sing Glory. In the movie, you don't see him singing Glory for most of the song, but you see about four flashback scenes (which I loved, by the way) and then it's just over. It feels like it flies by. Another example: on stage, New Years' Eve, because it's a song, is five minutes long. In the movie, it's about two minutes long. That's not bad. Just different. Without You, as well. On stage, you see about three things happen. In the movie, you see progressions of illness -- that's an entire year that goes by in the course of one song. I felt like I wanted to see more. It was just over too fast. (Part of this notion could absolutely have been my own nervousness, as well -- I could very easily have been so scared that I almost forgot to process the occurence, or something.)

To continue along those lines of wanting to have seen more, I will admit to having wanted the movie to be slightly darker and dirtier. While it certainly IS -- there are drugs, and visible signs of disease, suffering, bruality, and violence -- I had a strange desire to see more of the darker elements. For example, again, Without You: there's a very powerful scene showing Mimi when she's sick (the scene where Adam and Rosario are wet -- and the one where the photo on that FYC poster is from). But it was only about thirty seconds long. And while it's certainly not necessary to have more of that darkness, I would've liked to spend more time with those issues, and ones similar to them. I thought they were extremely powerful, but over entirely too quickly. On the other hand, though, there's some violence that's implied in the show that's shown in the movie, which I found really painful. You see Collins getting mugged -- and Jesse is just so lovable. You see it -- you see him bleeding -- and just think "no, stop." Seeing Adam actually take and throw punches in confrontation with the drug dealer is something I never, ever, ever wanted to see. But it was there. And it hurt. And that's how it should be. Because the first half or so isn't very dark, the movie hits its emotional peak at the end, which I think is very strong. If it were dark from the onset, that may in fact diminish what you feel when things start to fall apart. Without You is astoundingly emotional. You see Roger and Mimi fight -- and they're not just yelling; it's physical. It's painful. You see chairs become empty in the Life Support group, and both Angel and Mimi show visible signs of weakness, but through it all, Angel tries to keep smiling. Life Support is returned to several times, which I thought was very right. It's one thing that should provide stability to these people who are suffering, yet it does not.

The notion of things falling apart brings me to the Goodbye Love issue. The way in which I missed both Halloween and the end of Goodbye Love was musically. I simply missed hearing the music because I think they're both really strong pieces of music. But as I had been told and as I'd suspected to be truth, the Goodbye Love cut doesn't leave anything unexplained. The funeral scene in the movie is so, so much more powerful and jarring than it is on stage. You can see Mimi and Benny sitting together, and then Roger make eye contact with her. He's crying. You see Maureen and Joanne exchange glances, but sitting separately. They're both crying. And these characters are not only crying because they've lost Angel, but they're crying because right then and there, they realize that they're losing each other, too. Mark and Roger sit in the same row, but there's space between them. Roger's already distanced himself from everyone, even more than he had before. Right there in front of your eyes, in one scene, you see -- by nothing more than eye contact and tears -- these relationships absolutely fall apart. You don't need it to be told to you.

A few other random things to touch on...

I remember people thinking it odd that Roger actually goes to the Life Support meeting. First of all, he doesn't go to the first one -- not the song Life Support, which alleviates part of the problem in that you could say "oh, it's too soon for him to leave the house." I think what was done was an extremely powerful choice, actually. You can see that he's not just being negative and sitting around in his apartment, but he is actually going to put in an effort. When you see him walk to that meeting, it's like watching him think on all of the hatred and regret he feels -- but he's going to go do something about it. I think that addition is huge to the character development, and I absolutely love it. And people who were mad that Roger doesn't have his line in Life Support will be pleasantly surprised with what's been done in place.

The only thing that I actually thought particularly BAD was the thing on the cliff in Santa Fe during What You Own. I understand what they were going for, but something about it just looks very silly. It looks like a commercial, or a music video, or something, but I was in tears, and then that happened and I had to laugh. It looks very, very silly, but it's certainly not a huge deal. The staging for the end of Another Day didn't sit with me quite right, but it's not bad. I've always thought that what made it so climactic is that Roger and Mimi are yelling at each other at the end, basically throwing their baggage at each other without actually saying anything about it -- it's just pain. The fact that there was a lot physical distance between them in the movie, to me, diminished that. I felt like it should've been a bit more direct, and that they should've been closer to each other. Personal preference, though. It doesn't not work; it's about suspension of disbelief. I won't say WHAT the staging is, though.

The dialogue is not cheesy at all, as I had certainly been afraid of a while ago, BUT it does feel a little funny at first to hear lines that used to be sung just spoken as straight dialogue -- the inflection is totally different, and those lines absolutely work, but it just feels odd at first. In some ways, I wish there were a bit more of it, because I found a lot of the new dialogue to bring more to the characters. And because of this, the movie -- almost ironically -- has a lot of laughs. There are a lot of moments that are funny. I also really enjoyed that. The audience laughed. They cried. And they clapped. It was funny to have a compulsion to clap, and then realize that you weren't supposed to. But there is a BRILLIANT comedic moment with Angel after New Year's Eve, and everyone clapped.

In the story, there seem to be a lot of things that sometimes people don't pick up, because there's so much going on in the big picture when watching a stage production -- things like when Roger and Mimi tell each other that they've got AIDS, or the moment at which everyone picks up on that Angel killed Evita. To delve into the latter, on stage, to me, everyone going "Evita!" seems like they knew it already. In the movie, it's very obvious, via a close-up of eye contact, that this is a moment of funny realization. There are no confusing things like that in the movie -- everything is more simply and clearly delineated.

As for other "favorite parts," I enjoyed La Vie Boheme very much. It's got so much life and energy. The other thing that really got to me, though, was Mark's movie. I do, in this sense, have to wonder how people who have never seen the show and aren't predisposed to love these characters will feel -- in some ways, I wish I could know what that would be like. But in any event, I loved the life and spirit that came through in watching his movie, because these were things that you saw happen over the past two hours -- that you felt like you were present for in these peoples' lives. You could look back on the tears and the smiles right along with the characters, and you see it as a person there actually would've seen it in Mark's movie -- not as shot for the cinema, like you do for the first time, if that makes sense. As the movie ends, the frames speed up almost to an incomprehensible rate. You see all of these images just pass before your eyes, not even for a split second each. And that's... that's life. Right there. I don't want to ruin the very, very end, but it's gorgeous.

I just realized how long this is. I doubt anyone is still reading. But I'd like to extend thanks to anyone on this board who has had constructive discourse with me about this film for stretching my brain, my patience and my love. And I'd like to thank anyone on this board who has held my hand through the process, even at five o'clock in the morning. It's strange to me that it's all over, but it ends with a smile. Is the movie exactly as I imagined it? No. Are there things that I have tiny problems with? Sure. But is it Rent? Yes. Does it do what Rent is supposed to do? In my humble opinion, yes. A very, very strong, resounding YES.

What a journey it's been.

Updated On: 12/17/05 at 12:58 PM

[sanda]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:03pm

To be honest I didn't read the whole thing because I don't want to read spoiler. Just leave something to tell you that I pay special attention to your opinion about the movie and promise I will read it after I watch the movie.

I love you. :)

[liotte]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:05pm

I read the whole thing Em :)

Great review, I'm so jealous you got to see the movie already!

[JACXR71]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:07pm

Can't really say much except for excellent review (or gathering of thoughts I suppose ). Glad to hear you enjoyed it, and what you had to say has made me that much more excited to see the movie. Bravo!

[LeaGirl]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:09pm

Is it bad that I came running home from midtown last night to see if you'd posted about this?

I'm glad someone else enjoyed the movie - I was starting to feel crazy (but still resolutely not changing my opinion that I liked it)

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:09pm

Em, thank you so much for this. I was actually waiting to see what your opinion was and I am very happy that you are pleased with it. I have a feeling I am going to love it. :)

[LariTheLoud]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:09pm

That's all.

[Kass983]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:09pm

Emcee, I don't talk one on one with you like ever I guess, but it is YOUR review I have been waiting for. Thank you so much. I know you wouldn't steer me wrong, I'd go anyway, but now I know I will enjoy it.

[zepka102]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:11pm

i was looking forward to what you had to say above everyone else for the obvious reasons. you DID tell me you weren't going to watch anything or read anything before hand and judge for yourself... and i definitely enjoyed reading what you had to say. i'm psyched

[Marlene]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:13pm

Emcee thank you for the review. It’s gratifying to read what I just read because the emotional impact has always been such a huge factor for my love of the show. 8 days before I get to take it all in, and well it’s very appropriate for the Anthony Rapp SOON-ness to invade once again.

[SignoraDiva]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:14pm

I read it all and I can't wait to see it! This diva needs her rent movie!


Thanks for the post Em!

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:14pm

I've been pondering the Another Day staging. In theatre, it works for Mimi and Roger to be thisclose yelling at each other, but on film I imagine that might not look quite right on a 30 foot screen. I'm okay with it. I've also decided I like seeing Roger in Santa Fe, even if it may look "silly"

Very good review =)

[WesternSky2]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:14pm

I'd been looking forward to your review the most (and apparently, who hasn't? lol) and it's definitely put me at ease that you enjoyed it so much. I can't believe it's so close.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:14pm

Em, I already feel a lot more optimistic about the film, thanks to you. A big THANK YOU for a WONDERFUL review !!!!

[CaroleeFan]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:15pm

That was amazing Em. Thanks for composing that.

[Atrias]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:18pm

Thanks a lot, Em. It's the only review I've been waiting for as well.

[Bohemian1232]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:20pm

I, as many people were, was really looking forward to reading your review. It was exactly what I hoped it would be. I am really looking forward to seeing the movie!

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:22pm

Thank you SO much for this, Em! You did a wonderbar job with all of this.

Now, I can't wait to see it!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:23pm

Since I stated at some earlier thread, since we are on the same wavelength with A LOT of things I think I am going to LOVE it. Thanks for the review Emcee.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:23pm

Thanks for a great review. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

After seeing it on Thursday and hearing tons of negative reviews, I thought I was crazy for loving it as much as I did - kind of like it wasn't ok for me to love it. But your review just made me feel a lot better, and way more hyped to see it again and many, many more times. Thanks!

Updated On: 11/13/05 at 01:23 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:24pm

I'm glad you posted all that, because I don't have to.

After seeing the movie with Emcee last night (for the second time,) I came home and deleted my previous thoughts on the movie - because they're just no longer relevant.

Take that however way you like - but I agree with everything Emcee said - and my past review - like all reviews - should be taken with a mere grain of salt.

I'm not saying that I think this movie is the best picture of the year - and I'm not saying that it's incredibly filmmaking - I really cannot be the judge of such things - but the movie is beautiful and proves what a lot of us RENT fans have known all along.

Now please, no snide comments saying that I changed my mind because of Emcee - which isn't the case. She can tell you as well that I went in (again) not really with an optomistic additude - but this time I certainly cried - and, believe it or not - noticed things about RENT that I have never noticed before.

See the movie, and love it.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:24pm

I read the whole thing and I feel very reassured. If you loved it then I know for sure that I will.

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:25pm

You said that the scene where Roger songs One Song, Glory flies by. That made me laugh.

I can't wait to see this movie!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:26pm

Thanks, everyone.

To be honest, I felt a lot of pressure because people have been telling me they were waiting on this. But thanks for being supportive and all. I really appreciate it.

Jason, totally unintended.

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:28pm

Emcee, I also saw the movie - and I have to say, I agree 100% percent with your review. The movie wasn't what I expected it to be, but I definitley enjoyed it very much - and the La Vie Boheme scene is so fun! :)