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Set in New York City around Christmas of 1989, director Chris Columbus expertly immortalizes the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning Broadway musical about a group of Bohemians struggling with life and death, hetero and homosexual love and AIDS onto film.
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For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the musical, here’s the lowdown on the story:
Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, and Roger, an aspiring songwriter and musician, are roommates who are both broke and about to have their lives changed before their very eyes.
When their old friend and former roommate, Tom Collins, gets mugged on the way up to their flat, he helped out by Angel, a young drag-queen who invites him to a meeting for people living with AIDS. Meanwhile Mark and Roger face eviction by another former roommate, Benny, who now works for their landlord. But Benny will let them off the hook, if they can stop Mark’s ex-girlfriend, Maureen—who left him for a lawyer named Joanne—from protesting the demolishment of a homeless shelter.
When Mark gets a call from Maureen asking for his technical help in setting up for the protest, Roger gets a visit from Mimi, the exotic dancer from downstairs. The two are attracted to each other, but Roger is resistant when he notices Mimi’s drug habit, having already lost one girlfriend to drugs.
Meanwhile Tom Collins and Angel grow quite close, developing a genuine affection for each other—an affection that transcends anything sexual. Mark, however, meets Joanne at the homeless shelter and is jealous enough of the love she shares with his ex-girlfriend that he tries to drive a spike through it.
The story carries on continuing follow the lives and relationships of these people over the next week and even over the next year through life and death and examining the issues in their lives and essentially commenting on what these issues mean both to and for Western Civilization.
With the exception of Rosario Dawson as Mimi and Tracie Thoms as Joanne, director Chris Columbus made the decision to keep the original Broadway cast for the film figuring it would be a near impossible task to try and match their stage performances for screen. It was a decision that suits the movie quite well.
Debuting on Broadway in 1996, Rent’s author, Jonathan Larson—having spent seven long years developing the rock opera from concept to stage, died from an aneurism after seeing the final dress rehearsal on January 25th 1996.
Through memorable songs and music, Larson brings out many issues that were strictly taboo in Western culture before the 90s, and still are in some circles. While tackling known issues such as poverty, homelessness and drugs, Larson also hones in on homosexuality and all that goes along with it, including life-partnership, AIDS, drag queens, jealousy and others.
While some may feel this story is dated or the translation from stage to screen is somehow lacking, to this I say that the silver screen can never duplicate the emotional effect of seeing a live stage musical, film productions such as this provide an excellent means for exposing these musicals to those unable to get to Broadway. And for those who can get to Broadway, the film is an excellent way of capturing the music and feel of the stage.
For me, Rent was definitely worth my box office bucks.
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