Moulin Rouge 2001

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Reconfigures bigscreen musicals with more daring, inventiveness and conviction than any movie since The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Even when it falls on its face, which it does more than once, the new movie falters with style. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A rare picture that gets you intoxicated on the possibilities of movies. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: The movie has so much heart that the poor overworked organ explodes in every scene. Read more

John Zebrowski, Seattle Times: The colors and songs all come together to form a movie that is like no other before it. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: The real problem isn't overload but emptiness: The audience stays stone-cold sober. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Just remember to take your dancing shoes; you'll feel like using them afterwards. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It's like watching a hyperactive kid on a sugar high; after a while, you just want to send it to bed. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A dazzling, electrifying event that transcends the screen. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: It's torn between comedy and romantic melodrama. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It slashes through the distance that so many of us feel toward musicals. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A film as unpredictable as the love it celebrates -- you keep falling in and out of this giddy affair. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Disappointing because it could have been so much more. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Luhrmann] gives you way too much of what you didn't really want in the first place: soulless high jinks. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. Luhrmann and his colleagues have worked like whirling dervishes to make the plot look like it's moving. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Historical purists and those who enjoy only sedate films are likely to be infuriated by what Luhrmann has done here, but who cares? Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is more like the Moulin Rouge of my adolescent fantasies than the real Moulin Rouge ever could be. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Just two days after seeing Moulin Rouge, I can't help looking back fondly at the memory of it. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: So cheeky, aggressive and bursting with vitality that it can't help being annoying and exhilarating at the same time. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The film dances; the heart sings. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: If it lacks the emotional punch of Luhrmann's earlier films, and drags towards the end, it is still great fun. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Feels as if a dump truck has buried moviegoers in confetti and glitter for two hours. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Moulin Rouge is a tour de force of artifice, a dazzling pastiche of musical and visual elements at the service of a blatantly artificial story. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A voracious vacuum cleaner of a movie -- hoovering up a hundred years' worth of junk with the same monotonously unmodulated hum. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A wonderful postmodern hug of a movie. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: A magnificent mess of a postmodern musical. Read more