RENT-THE MOTION PICTURE

I know it is a little late...okay it's a lot late, but I finally saw the movie Rent (The film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock opera) and I must say I could have died a better woman without having seen this movie. I have to say the hype that this movie got it did not deserve and I have no idea of whether or not the movie did well in the box office but I think anyone who bought a ticket should get there money back. I hated it so much I want to charge the cable company for allowing me to watch it. It was just that awful. If any of you don't know what the movie is about...here goes.

This film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in modern day East Village New York. The story centers around Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal), two roommates. While a former tragedy has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film. In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS, and modern day life in one truly powerful story. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms, and Taye Diggs also star. Rent, the show that in 1996 gave voice to a Broadway generation, has finally become an energetic, passionate, and touching movie musical. Based loosely on Puccini’s La Bohème, it focuses on the year in the life of a group of friends in New York’s East Village–”bohemians” who live carefree lives of art, music, sex, and drugs. Well, carefree until Mark, an aspiring filmmaker (Anthony Rapp), and Roger, an aspiring songwriter (Adam Pascal), find out they owe a year’s rent to Benny (Taye Diggs), a former friend who had promised them free residence when he married the landlord’s daughter. Roger has also attracted the attention of his downstairs neighbor, Mimi (Rosario Dawson), while Mark’s former girlfriend, Maureen (Idina Menzel), has found a new romance in a lawyer named Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Philosophy professor Tom (Jesse L. Martin) finds his soul mate in drag queen Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). But because this is the late-’80s, the threat of AIDS is always present.

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I don't know what was worse...1) seeing a bunch of 30 somethings pretending to be 20 years and younger or 2) the random spurts of singing in between awkward dialogue. Everything about this musical drove me crazy. The worse thing was the character Muareen. When she sang she would open her mouth so wide that I could see what she ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also hated the fact that Taye Diggs was walking around acting like he could sing. If you are going to cast someone for a musical how about requiring some talent in the singing department. That goes for Ms. Rosario Dawson as well. Now I realize why I had not seen this movie....IT SUCKS.

PEACE