A far more well-known film is up next with Chris Columbus’s 2005 big-screen adaptation of uber-successful stage musical Rent. Yes, that’s right. Another musical. Uh oh. To be fair, I appreciate that this film does what it does very well but this melodic tale of a group of youthful arty New Yorkers struggling with their careers, love lives and dreams at the height of the early ‘90s AIDS epidemic really isn’t my cup of tea at all. It’s not strictly a ‘Christmas film’, being as it takes place over the course of a full year but it begins on Christmas Eve 1989 then soon fast forwards to christmas 1990, involves plenty of gift-giving and a festive party and I sat through the thing, so it qualifies in my book. For fans of this sort of thing, I’m sure Rent will be music to your ears but for me the whole experience is excruciating.
The plot is admirably ambitious with a top-drawer cast singing their little hearts out. There’s a lot going on here with lots of characters and ‘Big Issues’ to deal with. Problem is, they break out into over-the-top flamboyant musical numbers every chance they get and the film never seems to end. We’ve got Mark (Anthony Rapp), an aspiring film-maker and his roomie Roger (Adam Pascal) an HIV-positive rock singer who struggle to pay the titular rent to their ex-friend cum-landlord Benny (Taye Diggs). Roger’s busy romancing free-spirited dancer Mimi (Rosario Dawson), while Mark wrestles with feelings for his ex-girlfriend, activist Maureen (Idina Menzel) who is now in a lesbian relationship with lawyer Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Their pal Tom (Jesse L. Martin) is a professor who has fallen in love with Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), a drag-queen and street musician who is also suffering from AIDS. Safe to say, there’s plenty of drama and even more outrageously camp show tunes to go around.
I get that the musical this film was based on was an important landmark production with a lot to say about the AIDS epidemic, telling the story about a time when it felt like our governments were spending far more time demonising gay men than trying to cure the damn thing. Problem is, in 2005 the songs, the performances, everything feels far too late to the party, so uninspired, so blandly soft rock. Since Rent the musical came out we’ve seen the emergence of a million-or-so television talent contest singing shows and, at times, the promiscuously emotive X-factor style singing make Rent the movie feel like a parody of an actual good musical. At times it feels so stagey I’m left wondering why they bothered adapting it for the screen at all (answer: money). It all feels underwhelming and uninvolving because the characters spend so much more time singing at the audience than in letting the actors’ performances breathe to tell their emotional stories. It gets monotonous. Worst of all for me, though, is that half the time the lyrics of the songs don’t even rhyme.
I find that Dawson and Rapp in particular are really good here, surprising me with how well they can sing and dance but, sadly, their characters seem mostly kind of punchable and very full of themselves. I get fed up listening to these guys blubbering on about their “bohemian” lifestyles and chasing dreams of being songwriters, dancers, film directors etc, instead of actually getting a real job to pay the bloody rent, which they haven’t paid for a YEAR, like the rest of us do. I realise this viewpoint makes me seem like a bit of a humbug but I’ve worked for the DWP for years and have come across people like this many times, people who believe it's noble to get into loads of debt to chase their dreams of being a star. I’m sorry, but if you can’t afford to pay the bills, it’s time to put the dreams on hold and start flipping burgers or cleaning toilets, pal.
Rent is a film that’s constantly in danger of disappearing up its own backside. It’s as though the filmmakers were positive that audiences would buy into the idea that these boho dreamers are completely awesome, whereas it’s actually all a bit cringey. One part that finds me simultaneously both curling my top lip up in disgust and chortling uncontrollably at its unintentionally hilariousness comes when Roger saves Mimi’s life by…singing her a rock ballad. What’s worse is the song is bloody terrible and throughout, Roger’s overly theatrical singing makes it sound like he’s auditioning for Rock Star’s Steel Dragon. The film’s total earnestness and belief in its own brilliance comes off as pompous and misguided but does provide some laughs, though it’s mostly a drag as it’s also really bloody long.
On the plus side, Rent unrepentantly puts gay, lesbian and trans characters front and centre and doesn’t back down from depicting the cruel realities of HIV, though it can’t come close to feeling as relevant as the stage production must have felt when it first arrived on Broadway back in 1996. Columbus’ direction just doesn’t make this feel as daring or exciting as it could have been - it feels drab and square when you feel like it should pop. Even worse, the sudden bursts of song and dance keep on reminding me of the satirical Team America’s broadway number ‘Everyone Has AIDS’ that came out the year before.
Rent’s heart is in the right place and I’ll concede that it is quite moving when one character sadly passes but any feeling is quickly trampled to death by another overblown, hysterical musical number. This one shoots for the stars but it all looks and feels like a really forgettable early 2000s Britney Spears music video. Rather than a festive feast, this one is drab, tasteless Christmas cheese on toast.
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