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Moulin Rouge
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 485 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Baz Luhrmann
Craig Pearce
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 18, 2001
DVD: December 18, 2001
Running Time: 126 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content
Starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, and Kylie Minogue
Against the backdrop of 19th Century Paris and the famed Montmartre cabaret, this is the story of the doomed love affair between Christian (McGregor), a young poet, and Satine (Kidman), a courtesan and performer at the Moulin Rouge.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Australia Strictly Ballroom William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
MUSIC: Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A landmark musical movie -- controversial, mercurial, even cheeky. It's the kind of film that wildly divides audiences and critics -- people tend to either love or hate it. I loved it.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Luhrmann has raised the level of his game, deconstructing the Hollywood musical -- a genre all but left for dead -- and reassembling it with a potency that hasn’t been seen since “Cabaret.”
Washington Post Desson Thomson
It's a wonderful postmodern hug of a movie, and never once do you not know you're watching a movie.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
This thing moves brilliantly, sparkling like nothing we've seen domestically since "The Wiz" or "Xanadu."
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
A crazed, lovestruck, wholly original (and yet amazingly referential) beast, part pop-culture wasteland, part glowing tribute, and part wild-eyed roller coaster (of love).
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
An audacious, snappy visual and emotional feast of dishes both familiar and fresh. It's the first really good movie of 2001.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is all color and music, sound and motion, kinetic energy, broad strokes, operatic excess.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
A tour de force of artifice, a dazzling pastiche of musical and visual elements at the service of a blatantly artificial story.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's a mishmash of decoration, drapery and debauchery that's both deeply pleasurable and kitschy.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The film dances; the heart sings.
Film Threat Michael Dequina
What ultimately comes through is an undeniably imaginative work that is a glorious testament to the limitless and largely untapped possibilities of cinema.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
A movie so cheeky, aggressive and bursting with vitality that it can't help being annoying and exhilarating at the same time.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
It's impossible to watch this beautifully chaotic, excessive movie impassively. You'll either embrace what Luhrmann has done here or run out of the theater, holding your head.
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
You get faux feelings -- but faux of the highest, giddiest order.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The grand becomes grandiose and the lyrical turns bombastic.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A movie you can't readily get out of your head.
Washington Post Rita Kempley
McGregor, the movie's most engaging performer, is convincing enough to sell the mutual attraction. The "Trainspotting" star is usually playing some kind of freak, and this is a nice stretch for him.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It doesn't, as they say, really work -- but it's enjoyable enough in spots to leave one feeling passably entertained.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The result is a musical that substitutes irony for pop passion, misanthropic disjointedness for lyrical flow.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
Consistently runs the danger of substituting cool but ultra-hyper, modern special effects for boring old human sentiment.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
It's the kind of flourish that makes you smile -- that makes you believe in the power of movies.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Diverting, energetic, and even reasonably satisfying, so long as you aren't looking for a real musical to take its place.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Never boring, often excruciating and occasionally transcendent.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It wants to be like no other movie you've ever seen. It's more like every movie you've ever seen.
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Drowns in baroque mise en scène camp, frenetic musical numbers and a precious dialogue conceit that wears out its welcome very fast.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
The film musical is at the moment an even more devitalized art form than the Broadway musical. But Moulin Rouge doesn't revive it. It only rearranges the bones.
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
It's like being trapped inside a fever dream of Oscar-night production numbers.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
A voracious vacuum cleaner of a movie --hoovering up a hundred years' worth of junk with the same monotonously unmodulated hum.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
May be a spectacularly awful movie, but it's also spectacularly drenched in color, décor and other visual oh-la-la.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The picture brims over with ideas - good ones, silly ones, maudlin ones, witty ones, absurd ones - and they bump up against each other like ingredients in a vast stewpot that never comes to a continuous boil.
Slate David Edelstein
Ends up leaving you starved for a single moment of unhyped emotion. You can barely see the characters for Luhrmann screaming.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 485 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
CARL D gave it a10:
I saw it--several times. I luv it! I bought it-DVD...where is Blu-Ray version?....stunning visual work....filmmakers art masterpiece....Not for the artistically deprived !...which may explain some bewildered comments.
Kristi J. gave it a9:
Wonderful movie, just a little dizzying at times.
Vincent V. gave it a1:
Awful special effects, poor music, poor singing, poor acting, poor storyline... total suck.
Cİhat T. gave it a10:
The Best Thing You Will Ever Learn is to love and be loved in return... This movie will always be my best.
Steve E. gave it a0:
What on earth is all the fuss about? How can so many people give 10/10 to this load of rubbish? I would have given it -1 if I coukld! We turned it off after 30 minutes - never to re-visit - and regret wasting those 30 minutes and the price of the DVD. I wouldn't even give this unwatched trash to my worst friend.
Madison R. gave it a10:
My all time favorite movie! It allows the watcher to feel as though he or she is actually in the night club. The anachronistic music allows the audience member to really feel the emotions that were experienced during the time that the club was at it's early 20th century high points. The characters are well thought out and deep, and unlike many musicals, it seems believable that these people really would just break out into song together. Everyone should watch this movie several times, because it does take getting used to the hyper activity that is the Moulin Rouge.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Most definitely a film of shiny surfaces. This is not an in-depth analysis of character, and it is not trying to be; what it is is a brilliant film makers film, that manages to do what Ken Russell can only dream of.
