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Moulin Rouge
20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Moulin Rouge reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 66 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 474 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA 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.


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Baz Luhrmann
Craig Pearce
 
DIRECTED BY: Baz Luhrmann  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 18, 2001 
Video: December 18, 2001 
Theatrical: May 18, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 126 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Received eight Oscar nominations in 2002, including Best Picture and Best Actress (for Nicole Kidman). Won Best Picture-Musical or Comedy, Best Actress (Kidman), and Best Original Score at the 59th Golden Globe Awards, out of a total of six nominations.

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...

100
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
90
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.”
90
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
90
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
89
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
88
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
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is all color and music, sound and motion, kinetic energy, broad strokes, operatic excess.
Read Full Review
80
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
80
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's a mishmash of decoration, drapery and debauchery that's both deeply pleasurable and kitschy.
Read Full Review
80
Time Richard Corliss
The film dances; the heart sings.
80
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
75
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
A sometimes glorious, sometimes disastrous folly.
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75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Some will find it exhilarating fun.
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75
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.
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75
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.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
You get faux feelings -- but faux of the highest, giddiest order.
70
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.
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70
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The grand becomes grandiose and the lyrical turns bombastic.
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70
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A movie you can't readily get out of your head.
70
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
67
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
67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The result is a musical that substitutes irony for pop passion, misanthropic disjointedness for lyrical flow.
Read Full Review
60
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
60
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
It's the kind of flourish that makes you smile -- that makes you believe in the power of movies.
60
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Simultaneously stirring and dispiriting.
Read Full Review
60
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
50
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Never boring, often excruciating and occasionally transcendent.
Read Full Review
50
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.
50
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.
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50
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.
40
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
It's like being trapped inside a fever dream of Oscar-night production numbers.
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40
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
38
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.
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38
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.
30
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

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 474 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[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.

Nicki gave it a10:
I loved this movie it deserves way over a ten! It was so much fun to watch, I could watch it over and over again. Definetly is my favorite movie, the music, the acting, the costumes, everything was amazing and definetly worth your time!

Juan P. gave it a10:
Fantastic film, great cast, great music. Nicole K. is spectacular spectacular.

Drunken Master gave it a0:
This is a film for people who know nothing of history and don't mind seeing one of the most talented and tragic artists of all time portrayed as a singing and dancing life-of-the-party midget. Never mind that the REAL star of the Moulin Rouge was an obese redhead (a far cry from Kidman) nicknamed "The Glutton", never mind that the film is chock full of ridiculous anachronism (who the hell sold these jerks the rights to "Smells like Teen Spirit", fer chrissakes??? they should be found and punished. Severely.), never mind that the entire film is directed to look exactly like an extended music video: Ewan MacGregor is SO DREAMY WHEN HE SINGS and that is all that matters! (Ugh, excuse me for just a second: I feel ill.) A lot of people defend this move because they think it's "romantic". Well, if your ideal of love and romance is this gaudy, this detached from reality, this superficial, you can keep it. I'll stick with the real thing. This film is strictly for fourteen year old girls. Even a guest appearance by the Green Fairy can't cover the stink of this turd.

Slavisa M. gave it a10:
Moulin ROuge is the best musical of all time and the best film of 2001!! Baz Luhrmann makes beautiful work - he is one of the great directors who puts his heart and soul in a film, until it's perfect! And Moulin Rouge is almost there! Nicole Kidman gives the role of her life as well as Ewan McGregor and Jim Broadbent do too. If Luhrmann ever came near to an Oscar, then it was with Moulin Rouge! Because he won't be able to repeat it again. That story, that imaginative score, costumes and art direction... Which I really liked was film editing and cinematography. It makes the film feel "alieve", just makes it something special. Moulin Rouge is the best musical ever and one of the greatest love stories...simply 10+

Jamie S. gave it a10:
This movie combined the best of musical theatre and modern cinema. The p.d. technology and charming antiquity meet and blend beautifully in this piece. Kudos!

Alex gave it a10:
It's by far the best movie that I've ever seen. The whole cast is perfect, Ewan McGregor in particular. He has the voice of an angel. The chemistry between each cast member is palpable...just amazing. Costumes, setting, plot, script...everything was phenomenal.

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