Rent

Rent is the 2005 film version of the extremely popular musical. Directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), Rent takes a good portion of the music of the stage production and a good portion of the original stage performers to try to create enough of the feel of the musical while allowing the medium of cinema to create broader pictures and bigger environments.

The musical, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning production, was written by Jonathon Larson and is essentially a rock opera that follows the lives of several bohemians in a group of friends. The group struggles through New York life, complete with all of the trappings of their lifestyles. AIDs, love and loss are huge themes of the musical and of the film. The story takes its centerpiece from two roommates and follows their experiences through big musical number after big musical number. The film captures most of the music in a lively and engaging fashion almost to a fault as during the rare five minutes when there are no songs, one wonders where the music has gone.

The film, like the musical, spans the course of a year. Originally planned to be a vehicle for director Spike Lee, Rent ends up being ably directed by Columbus. The cast is mostly comprised of original members of the musical. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Tracie Thomas and others comprise the rather large cast.

Rent went on to be the second highest grossing Broadway musical adaptation on its first weekend, surpassed only by The Phantom of the Opera. Many people blame the lack of recognizable mainstream stars for the less than stellar box office performance, but the faithful crowds did show up to check out the film version of the musical. The fans would debate, continuously, about the omission of songs and the inclusion of dialogue in place of songs. One aspect of the film, the “commitment ceremony” was considered tacked on and unnecessary.

Given all of that, I reacted rather well to the first half of the film. The songs were vibrant (I have not seen the original musical production) and the storyline was ably guided by them. The performers were good, too, showing off their skill and their obvious love for the power of the production with each number and each performance. The production values were strong, including the visually powerful opening few scenes, especially the scene in which flaming eviction notices are sent flying out of New York City windows.

The power and passion of the first half of the film seemed to collapse soon after the song in the diner, however. The sympathy for the characters started to wane (this is likely the fault of the musical), but the film’s decisions to include several moments that did not contribute to the plot (I watched the film with my wife, who had seen the musical) and include a great deal of dialogue seemed to hurt the overall flow of the film. It became rather tedious and challenging to get a read on the characters and, instead of reacting with shock or inspiration at some of the moments in the second half, it became rather tiring. The musical numbers started to lose steam, too.

Spike Lee’s production, in this writer’s opinion, might have introduced some more interested developments. The problem wasn’t necessarily the inclusion or omission of anything, but rather that the inclusion or omission of what was included or left out served no purpose and actually took the flow out of the film. The cast was also average and rather difficult to rally behind, despite being passable in their roles. As with most musicals, the film version never quite gathers the energy of the stage performance, but Rent actually had the fire before poor writing decisions put it out.

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