[lit-ideas] Rent
- From: Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 07:07:44 -0800 (PST)
I saw the movie Rent last night. I'm assuming that something got lost in the
translation between the Broadway hit and the movie. The movie was awful.
Apparently it's based on LaBoheme, which I know nothing about.
It's even worse than Titanic for taking tragedy and turning it into
melodrama, and more boring than Heartbreak Kid. Heartbreak Kid at least had
some pretty interesting psychological profiles in it looking back on it, and I
was curious how they would end it. Rent was a mishmash of drug addicts and
sexually confused people who think their rights are infringed upon because they
can't, collectively no less, pay the rent. The prostitute with a heart of gold
becomes the homosexual with the heart of gold.
On top of which, the music and lyrics were abysmal. I've heard Steven
Sondheim criticized as all his stuff sounding the same, but now I know why his
shows are so popular. I kept hoping that one of the characters would break out
into the song Memory. I saw the movie version of Sondheim's Joseph and the
Multicolored Coat not too long ago, and it was okay, but it was downright art
compared to this. I really hope the show Rent is better than the movie.
Either that or people will pay a lot of money for the opportunity to indulge in
some vicarious slumming. Morbid curiosity accompanied by really bad music, a
universe away from the Bohemia of John Reed and Louise Bryant or the Beats.
If the medium is the message, then this message found its perfect medium in a
really bad movie. Midnight Cowboy it wasn't. Eric, do you know anything about
this show?
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