olivia_sutton | Entries tagged with ewan mcgregor

This review was posted to my movie review blog on 1 Jan 2012.

Title: Moulin Rouge
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Date: 2001
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Genre: Musical, Romance
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham (Cameo)
Format: Color, Widescreen
DVD Format: R1, NTSC

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and to be loved in return."

"You expect me to believe that scantily clad, in the arms of another man, in the middle of the night, inside of an elephant, you were rehearsing?" -- The Duke

"Hurt him to save him. There is no other way. The show must go on, Satine. We are creatures of the underworld, we can't afford to love." -- Zigler

Moulin Rouge is an incredible, incredible film. The color, music and dancing all reflect a surreal, hyper-reality feel. Yet the story is a simple story about love -- an impossible love. Christian is a young naive Englishman who makes his way to Paris, to the heart of the Bohemian Revolution to become a writer and experience love. He quickly falls in with a group of Bohemian artists, and is chosen to write their new show. Needing backers, they go to the Moulin Rouge and Howard Zigler, and his head courtesan, Satine.

Through a misunderstanding, Christian meets Satine, and they fall in love. However, Zigler needs money to convert his nightclub and bordello to a real theatre. He promises Satine to the Duke. The Duke even gets Zigler to sign over the deeds on the Moulin Rouge to him.

Satine is shocked to discover the man she's really falling in love with isn't a rich Duke after all, but a penniless Bohemian writer. The plot revolves around their love triangle -- Christian and Satine and Satine and the Duke. And the question is: Will Satine, a Courtesan, choose true love with Christian or go for the money she can get from the Duke (which Zigler also encourages, since he'll lose the Moulin Rouge if she doesn't). The love triangle is even built into the show that Christian is writing to debut on the new stage of the Moulin Rouge. It may seem like a simple and traditional plot -- but what pulls Moulin Rouge out of the commonplace is it's style and look. A style that's surreal, hyper-reality, more real than real. And Ewan McGregor as Christian and Nicole Kidman as Satine really do give the performances of their lives. And my gosh can they both sing!

The majority of the music in Moulin Rouge is modern music. Rather than keeping to a historical look and feel to the film -- Baz Luhrmann goes completely in the opposite direction -- accentuating the way it would feel to someone in 1899-1900 to be in such a remarkable place. The opening dance number is a whirl of lights, color, movement and loud music. One knows this won't be your typical musical when the can can girls and the men in white ties and black tails are singing and dancing to "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Satine's song that she performs as a courtesan is a medley of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Material Girl", though the song she sings when she's on her own is, "I'll Fly Away", because her ambition is to be a real actress - or at least to get out of the Moulin Rouge. Christian first courts her with Elton John's "Your Song", but he's most impressive with the song he writes for her, and the only original song in the film, "Come What May". (Though "The Pitch/ Spectacular Spectacular" could be argued as original - only the lyrics are, the music is The Can Can.)

But it's surprising and even amusing to hear the modern music in the film, though the mood always fits. "Elephant Love Melody", for example, is an argument between Christian and Satine where they throw lines from romantic pop songs at each other. Zigler gets to sing "Like a Virgin" to the Duke, when he's trying to come up with an excuse as to why Satine has missed a date. There's also a very impressive Latin Tango done to "Roxanne". And many others. It's also common for lines of dialogue in the film to be quotes from famous music (Christian even gets his writing job by quoting "The Sound of Music"). Yet, somehow, it fits, it's like when you and your friends quote lines from movies you've seen or books you've read. Christian, Satine, and even Zigler quote lines from music.

There are also some remarkable special effect sequences in the film - and as showy as they are, it merely emphases the point at the time.

But the most remarkable aspect of this musical is the end - it really is astounding and surprising. I've seen this film now several times and I always enjoy it and appreciate it more with every viewing.

Recommendation: See it!
Rating 5 of 5 Stars
Next Film: Network

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The Ghost Writer - Movie Review
By Olivia Sutton

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Bronson, Kim Cattrell, Timothy Hutton

The Ghost Writer is a tense, intriguing British political film. I hesitate to call it a "thriller", because like many British political films or mini-series, the pacing at first is slow and the film lacks the violence of American political thrillers. However, the film's somewhat slow pacing does quickly draw you in through the characters - the entire film is told through the pov of Ewan McGregor's character, a freelance writer who accepts a job as a ghost writer on the biography of a former British Prime Minister, played by Pierce Bronson.

This film reminds me of two British political mini-series, "A Very British Coup" from the 1970s, in which the Labour Party overwhelmingly wins a British election (bringing a Labour PM into power) only to have the Civil Service work to discredit the elected Labour government. When that doesn't work the prime minister is assassinated by MI6. (Note: Because of the way Parliamentary Government works, a British Prime Minister has never been assassinated - it wouldn't work, the original party would still be in power and the next in line for party leadership would assume the duties of PM. At the very worse, it would cause a leadership crisis or vote of non-confidence). The other mini-series this reminds me of is "The Trial of Tony Blair", a fictional mini-series in which the real Tory/Conservative PM Tony Blair is accused of and put on trial for war crimes. If you have seen one or both of these previous mini-series, or have a working knowledge of British politics, it will help in seeing The Ghost Writer, but it's not necessary.

The film opens with a discussion of the mysterious death of McGregor's predecessor, necessitating the need for a new ghost writer. As mentioned above, Ewan McGregor takes the job and heads to Martha's Vineyard to interview Alan Lang (Bronson, the former PM). While in the airport, Sky News (the UK's worst new service, by the bye) breaks a story that the Hague is looking into Lang's actions while PM for possible war crimes (or facilitation of war crimes and torture). This makes McGregor's job harder, as the already short one month deadline he had on the book has been shortened to two weeks.

Arriving in Martha's Vineyard, McGregor starts interviewing Lang, meets his wife, his very pretty personal assistant, and slowly discovers something is wrong. However, rather than beat you over the head with conspiracy theory, The Ghost Writer, instead, feels like a well-crafted mystery. McGregor's character really has no idea what's going on - so neither does the audience, which is what makes this film work so well. This is a film that trusts the audience to be intelligent enough to follow the twists and turns of the plot without over-explaining it. It also, quickly turns into a film about trust -- who is McGregor to trust? Does he trust Lang? His wife? Lang's political rival who leaked the story? The CIA? Just what is going on? Even once it seems all is revealed, the film isn't over.

Overall, The Ghost Writer, is a well-written, extremely well acted, thoughtful, intelligent movie. This is a film for adults - not because of language or sex scenes, but because less mature viewers probably won't have the patience to wait for it to play out, or the intelligence to understand what's going on anyway. I do highly recommend it!

Which brings me to the last point about this movie. I wanted to see it from the minute I saw the first previews over six months ago. When February arrived I checked Fandango weekly, but none of my local theaters carried it. This week I discovered it was airing - Monday and Tuesday and that was it! I ended-up going to the first show on Tuesday. I'm glad I finally saw the film - but I'm just a little bit peeved at the blatant censorship by my local theaters. This is the second film I've nearly missed because of local censorship. (I did miss "Creation" starring Paul Bettany. It was in town for one day - and that was it. And I'm not exaggerating, I was checking Fandango - the weekend it aired I had family obligations and couldn't see the film, and the next week it was gone.) You know, if you don't want to see a film - the answer is simple - don't go see it. But I'm getting a little tired of local politicos and business leaders deciding that they don't like a film so no one can see it. And, yeah, sure, there's rental places and Netflix (which I don't currently subscribe to), but I still prefer to see a film in the theater with an audience. I'm getting a bit tired of someone else deciding what I can and can't watch.

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