Rent - (A Review For Rent-Heads)

by Sara Elliott

Generally I ignore film reviewers (feel free to do the same), but I had heard that Rent had received a less-than-excellent review in the Star Tribune. I was worried that the movie version would not live up to my expectations that it would be at least a faithful representation of the play. After having a chance to read the Strib review, I found out why the reviewer gave the movie a 1 out of 4 stars – he didn’t like the premise of the original stage production.

I went to see Rent (the movie) last weekend. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I thought the theater would be packed. The movie had come out on Wednesday and by some miracle of will power I was able to wait until Friday to see it with my family. The theater was definitely not packed, though I would have liked it to be.

The lights dimmed and the movie began with “Seasons of Love” being sung by the cast on the stage of an empty theater. It was as though they were paying respect to the roots of Rent and easing me and my fellow “Rent-heads” into this new format.

Because I am a law student and it is finals season, the rest of the review will be brought to you in bullet-point format. I loved that they got a majority of the original Broadway cast (only Joanne and Mimi were re-cast for the movie). Because of their personal attachment to the project they were able to keep the integrity of the play in tact for the movie.

Things I liked that were different:
• The Tango Maureen was done in a new/clever way that could not have been done on stage (I’m not going to give it away here)
• There was more dialogue surrounding the relationship between Joanne and Maureen, creating more context for their performance of “Take Me or Leave Me”.
Things I didn’t like that were different:
• The director played with the order of the songs a lot and I’m not sure why.
• Most of the events from the first act of the stage production that happened on Christmas Eve
• Some songs were cut short and I found myself continuing to sing along in my head long after the song had ended.
• A few songs were cut out entirely – We’re Okay (not really missed), Christmas Bells, Happy New Year, Halloween (This is a powerful intro to “Goodbye Love” and I missed it) and Contact (probably trying to keep the PG-13 rating on that one!)
• Some songs were just cut short – You’ll See Boys (doesn’t have Angel and Collins in it), Goodbye Love (the scuffle between Mark and Roger is missing)

Overall I thought the movie was faithful to the original production and the show’s message of love. I love the idea that I can own this movie and watch it whenever I want!