No film this decade embodies the passion, excitement, innovation, power, and sheer magic of cinema quite like Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann's spectacular spectacular reinvention of the movie musical for the 21st century. It is an unparalleled triumph. Taking a simple premise of star-crossed lovers and a seemingly random collection of pop music hits (featuring everything from the "Can-Can" to "Like A Virgin"), Luhrmann gives us a work so original and unforgettable, to compare it with any other film would completely defeat its purpose. This is a movie to treasure and experience for the pure joy, sensuality, and romance with which it drips. Not to mention that incredible eclectic score! This is why we go to the movies.
Where other films would buckle under the weight of such stylistic excess, Moulin Rouge! thrives off of it. The sets and costumes are more dazzling than you could even conceive in your imagination, so vibrant and colourful that they can survive Luhrmann's quick-moving camera and wild editing and come out just as sparkly on the other side. Even more importantly than the visual design, it's the performances that really light up the screen. Nicole Kidman is sassy yet heartbreaking, the tragedy of her character cracking through her sexy exterior more and more as death slowly overcomes her. As her fresh-faced and idealistic lover, Ewan McGregor bursts forth with an enthusiasm that, had it not been as overacted as it was, could have sabotaged the whole project. But McGregor knows the exuberance his part calls for, and he and Kidman play beautifully off each other, making their fairytale love seem real and believable in an unbelievable film. The supporting cast members are all aces, with special mention to Jim Broadbent as the gargantuan showman Harold Ziegler.To claim the decade's best film is perfect would be false, but its imperfections are its charms, its eccentricities are why we love it. We love it for its frenetic humour, its energy, its ingenious use of music, its utter beauty, but most of all, for its tear-jerking and indelible love story, the least gimmicky and most beautiful thing any film could boast.
A Masterpiece.
Here's my favourite scene not only from Moulin Rouge!, but from any movie of the decade:
Thus concludes my year-long countdown of what I considered the best movies from 2000-2009. I'll officially wrap things up on New Year's with a specialawards ballot indicating the decade's greatest achievements in all the usual categories (I'm just geeky that way).
