I saw the movie again today. But in addition to getting into exactly what you asked for, Anthony, I'd like to tell a story -- it all pertains, on a more personal level than what the people in the movie theatre were like.
I spent last night with my aunt and uncle out-of-state for Thanksgiving. Yesterday evening, my family and I were sitting with them and some other company they had for dinner. My uncle came in and was like "so, you're a Rent lover, huh?" My mom cut in and went "they call them Rent
heads." I looked at her and nodded, sort of like "since when do you...?" News travels fast in my family, though. The majority of the company had seen the show on stage at one point or another, and knew in some capacity that the film was out. They were curious about a lot of things, though; about you, about Adam being uncharacteristically friendly toward me lately, about this crazy year I've had, about just *why* I love the show so much, etc. I was shy around some of the people I didn't know much, but I just started to tell them. My mom was next to me, and I watched she and my dad, across the room, exchange glances as I was talking -- I could tell there was a noticable increase in the degree of my animation when I could talk about something like this. My aunt leaned over to my dad and asked who I was talking about, and he was like "oh, Adam Pascal," and told her all about him -- what shows he's done, that he was only a musician to start out with, and not an actor, etc. My dad's always thought Adam to be a very talented fellow; he liked AIDA very much. And, even though he's never "gotten it," he likes that seeing him perform makes me happy. It was just really nice to see.
This morning, when I went downstairs for breakfast, I found my aunt's copy of Life Magazine waiting for me. Someone had found it in the paper, opened it up to the page with Adam's photo, and left it on the counter for me. I came downstairs, and my mom was just like "so, did you see your boy?" My aunt let me keep it, and everyone watched The View with me. At least they were interested. (I read the article on the bus tonight; I had to try really hard not to cry.) While we were watching The View, my mom saw a photo of Jonathan and went "wow, he was so young." I replied something like "yeah, he was thirty-five," and answered her question about how he died, and how it was just before previews, etc. I cried. That's never happened to me before.
I'm kind of upset with my brother; he used to say he really wanted to see this with me. He blew off our plans to see it to hang out with his crowd of "I'm butch, I SWEAR!" teenaged boys. Something tells me he couldn't find it in himself to turn his friends down because he was going to see a movie musical with his sister. I want him to see it, because it's important, but now he's gone from wanting to see it to "no, shut up. I'm not seeing your stupid movie!" He probably just wanted to see it with me a few weeks ago so he could have bragging rights and tell his friends he saw it early. *sigh* I'll make him. He has to.
For what it's worth, my parents and I saw the movie this afternoon.
We went to a theatre in the town next to my hometown, and it's about an hour and a half North of NYC. I'm from a cluster of towns that can sometimes be called "upstate," and is sometimes referred to as a suburb of NYC. Either way, we have easy access to NYC, and I think we can assume that many people around, especially the types who were in the theatre, have seen Rent, or are at least familiar with what it is. Our local paper gave the movie a fairly decent review, overall saying that the performances were so great and given with such care that the fact that some plot things made no sense almost became irrelevant, and they put something about the movie in the corner of the front page.
The movie was packed; probably just about sold out, save for two or three seats, perhaps. It was mostly teenaged girls, some with their parents, some with their boyfriends, many just with each other. I ran into some old friends there, too. (One had already seen it and loved it, one hadn't seen it yet and loved it. I couldn't catch up with the other afterwards.) I saw two walk-outs: one was a mother and her child, probably about nine years of age. They left right after the scene with April and Roger and the needle; presumably, the child was deemed to young for the material. One other couple left, probably bored, or something. The audience laughed *a lot* at all of the inappropriate moments. They seemed really into it. I heard a *few* sniffles after Without You and into the ICY reprise, but not nearly as many as I'd heard previously. Nobody sang, nobody mooed. After the last frame, there was a palatable silence, and then applause. Walking out, and in the lobby on the way outside, I heard a lot of positive comments -- just random little things, like how good an actor or a scene was. But every little bit counts.
The only exception that I noticed was in the people sitting directly behind me. I think they were pre-teen girls with their mother, or something. They whined through the *whole* movie, praying for it to be over, and their mother kept telling them to shut up and sit there quietly until it was over. They laughed every single time Angel was on screen, and went "oooooh, it's a GUY!" I wanted to turn around, slap them and go "don't you GET it? He's DYING, for God's sake; stop laughing at him!" They went "ew!!!!" when Maureen kissed the female dancer in the Tango, and after the movie were like "that was such a piece of sh*t." Plus, one of them kicked my seat through the entire thing, and they talked through the LVB, B kiss. Not cool, girls. NOT COOL.
Anyway, my parents; because after all I say about them around the boards and things, this is probably of interest.
My father saw the show with me three years ago, the first time I ever saw it. He's spent the past three years telling me that seeing it again is a waste of time and money, and to stop being so silly. He dozed off for most of the show. So this afternoon I dragged him into the movie theatre, and I told him I hoped he would like it, adding that the most I'd ask of him was to please stay awake. The rest was negotiable. I just wanted the story to actually pass in front of his eyes this time -- OPEN.
I strategically placed myself in the seat between my parents. My mom asked the typical cynic questions and made the comments. My dad shushed people throughout the entire movie. Before it began, he asked me if this time, he might be less confused about the story. It was obvious that he was going to make a conscious effort to sit in that movie theatre and try to UNDERSTAND. I was really proud of him for that.
After it ended, he hugged me and told me he thought it was very good. Very good, indeed. And he meant that. He's always been drawn to Angel, being that he sees that as the part that takes the most skill; he's just so impressed by what it takes. He couldn't stop raving about Wilson. The last thing he said about it was that the movie was better than the play; I had to catch a bus, so I didn't have time to ask why, but I will.
My mom, on the other hand is the cynic. During "Rent," she leaned over and told me she thought it was campy. She asked why "Adam" had AIDS (God forbid!). I knew what she meant, but eek. She asked me why these people didn't just get over it and go get jobs, why they were on the F train, because the F doesn't go to Alphabet City. and during What You Own went "What? Did he go to Santa Fe for five minutes? He just left! How did he pay for stuff, like food? Where did he stay?" She also was bothered by the fact that seconds are her near-death experience, Mimi was up and singing. She mentioned that it was shot very much like a musical; I think she meant that it's easier for her to use the notion of suspension of disbelief on stage -- as she is used to a musical being presented -- and had a harder time giving in to that suspension on screen. After the movie, her main thought was that it wasn't the best thing she'd ever seen, but that she did enjoy it, and did not think it should've been rated PG-13 at ALL -- she was so confused as to how it wasn't rated R. She says you're very cute, Anthony. Adam's voice has always been much like nails on a chalkboard to my mom. *However* she said that the unique quality of his voice is by far the best thing he's got going for him, though acting-wise, he did nothing that made her think "wow, that's bad!" and she said she thinks he looks better in person. She ADORED Jesse, and thought he stole the movie -- she's always liked him, though -- and told my dad that "that Mimi character" was "ugly and annoying." He agreed with that one, but it's hard to tell if they were bugged by Rosario's TAKE on Mimi, or by Mimi herself. I suppose the former greatly influences the latter, though. Both of my parents were bothered by the fact that she was very obviously much younger than the others. My mother was also the one who asked me why I was crying, and told me she hopes I won't go see it again after this -- three's enough, to her. heh. One of the last things she said before I left to travel was that seeing the movie didn't really give her any more desire to see the show, which to me is unfortunate -- she said that had it not been for me, she would have no interest at all.
I tried to get my parents to talk to me about it after. I asked them if they were confused at all about the story. My dad said no. My mom said not really, UNTIL I told her about the cuts. I told her that they had cut a fight between Mark and Roger, and she went "oh, I didn't get that" after I had said there was a rift between them. I thought that maybe she didn't pick up on Roger's isolation because she wasn't looking for something to compensate for the cut song she didn't know existed. In other words, she didn't know the second half of Goodbye Love was missing, so she wasn't consciously in search of something that would be in its place. She told me she assumed that Roger left because of Mimi, but that she also thought Roger to be a bit pathetic, because he didn't go out and do anything -- he just sat around and was sad. She assumed that his sadness was due more to the fact that he has AIDS than it was to April's death, though, and that he wouldn't go near Mimi primarily because he didn't know she was sick at first, not because he was just out of rehab. Either way, with that sort of thing, she picked up on the vitals, which was nice.
So, my parents have finally seen this movie. My father is finally warming up; he's starting to get it, and he's certainly trying. My mother finally took the first step.
And me? I'm still settling in to getting used to the movie, in a good way. I had tears in my eyes the entire time, but I had to try not to cry, because my parents would probably tell me I was being silly about it, but I lost it at Without You and cried like a baby through the end. Each time I return, I'm more relaxed about it; this is how it is, and I love it. Now it's out there in the world, and I can't do anything but enjoy it and hope that other people do, too. I am more astounded and heartbroken by Adam's performance each time. I fell in love with that beautiful voice all over again tonight; I don't know what it was, but I started to fall for those tiny little nuances all over again. But more than anything, I feel like having this movie, for some reason that I can't figure out yet, makes me feel even more connected to the material than I ever was before. And that's a really beautiful thing.
ETA -- Good God, what a monster-sized post. Sorry. If you read, I love you.
A work of art is an invitation to love.
Updated On: 11/26/05 at 11:18 PM
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) and the other mom is trying. She saw it with me and said she liked it, but she won't see it again. However, she did spend the morning with me searching through newspapers and trying to get all 3 copies of the LIFE magazine. I was proud of her.
