Let's be honest: Rent isn't a very good musical. The lyrics are trite and uninteresting, and the melodies sound like bad 80s pop songs. Had composer Jonathan Larson not died just as the show was about to open, Rent would have closed after a short off-Broadway run, and would have been received as a mildly promising first attempt. Larson's death, though, allowed the show's publicists to position him as the Tragically Lost Voice of a New Generation, and the show took on an emotional force that it hadn't really earned on artistic merit alone.
And so the show runs and runs, having become an essential part of the New York tourist experience simply by virtue of its own longevity. Now that the film musical is making a comeback, it was inevitable that someone would take a shot at filming Rent.
What wasn't inevitable -- or, I'm afraid, very wise -- was the choice to bring back as much of the riginal cast as possible. Six of the eight principal actors are veterans of the original 1996 Broadway production; their characters are supposed to be in their early-to-mid 20s; these six actors range from 30 to 37. They're too old for these parts, and it's distracting. (The two newcomers are younger, but that doesn't help in both cases. Rosario Dawson is 26, but her character tells us she's 19, and another character says she looks 16. Only Tracie Thoms, whose character is the most mature of the central group, isn't uncomfortably old for her role.)
The actors are certainly comfortable with the singing and acting demands of their roles, and there are a handful of effective moments -- the "Tango: Maureen" is wittily staged, and a gospel-tinged version of "I'll Cover You" is quite lovely -- but all the hard work can't make up for the weakness of the material. I suppose that die-hard Rent fans will be happy to have a film record of the show, but they're the only ones who will take much pleasure from the movie.
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