Mini-DVD Review: RENT

I must admit that it's hard for me to be totally unbias when writing this review. I love the Larson play Rent. Of all the musicals i've seen, Rent just hits home with me. The haunting message of living today for today is presented through this award winning play in a way that just takes it strait home for me.

I have seen the play twice now and would definately see it again someday. When I heard they were making a movie, I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I guess it's like having a favorite book and hearing that they will make a film out of it (as an example - as excited as I am about it I do have some concerns about the upcoming Da Vinci Code film).

Well, that being said, I was pleasantly surprised by this film. There were some interesting additions and some interesting omissions in the silver screen version. They pretty much stuck with the dialogue of the theatre script but made some artistic choices to change some signing parts into spoken parts (in the musical, very few lines are spoken).

Actors were all great (especially the one who played Tom Collins - she should do more films if he's a theatre actor). I read somewhere that they were the original broadway cast member (not 100% sure - still need to watch the documentary on the seond disk). I won't get into the story too much. You like or you don't.

I will say that having seen it live and listened to the CDs a few dozen times, it did make this movie watching experience unique. I KNRW the dialogue before they actually said some of it. It was the first time that i watched something and knew the story in so much detail. The surprise element was all about figuring how they would represent the play in a movie setting. Cool way of watching something. I wouldn't want it to always be that way but this was a first.

I must admit that some of the lines might have been lost in the shuffle had I not known the dialogue so well. I have found this to be the case many times when watching musicals. I get caught up in the melodies and songs and don't get all the lyrics.

A pleasant viewing. I give this an 8/10.