The Midnight Train Crossing

I first saw the RENT movie the day after Thanksgiving but I never got around to writing a review. I started one but then my computer ate it, so the second time around will have to do.
I haven't seen the stage version, although I do have the sound track. This will contain spoilers, just in case you haven't seen the RENT movie.

Before I get into the movie, I'd like to report that some of the viewing experience was rather... interesting. Before the movie I overheard some rather loud high school age girls in the bathroom, and naturally tried to avoid them.... And so I was quite pleased when they walked into the theatre right in front of us. We didn't sit near them. They were rather loud during the previews and I was hoping that they'd shut up for the movie.
For the most part they did. There were only a few times when they got loud. One screamed out "I love you!" when Angel introduced himself during Life Support. During Tango Maureen I heard one whisper something inaudible and the other responded, loudly, "Well she is a lesbian." Other than that, either I tunned them out or they shut up.

Now onto the movie.

Since it was mostly the Original Broadway cast I wasn't too worried about if I'd like them, because I already knew that I did. The new additions of Rosario Dawson as Mimi and Tracie Thoms as Joanne were also excellent.

I have so much to write that I think I shall just go in order like I always do.

I loved the opening "Seasons of Love" with just the cast on the bare stage. It was Joanne's chance to make a good first impression with her verse of "Seasons of Love" and she just nailed it. Even though they filmed the movie "realistically" it was nice that they recognized that it's really a play.

Obviously since the movie started with "Seasons of Love" that meant that they changed the order of things a little bit. They cut out the whole tune up thing at the beginning and flow almost straight into "Rent", although Mark does do his "December 24th, 9 pm Eastern Standard Time". They added a year to it though, "1989." It dates the film a bit, but I suppose that the year 1989 is also a sort of transition year into a new decade. I dunno, but I thought it was odd that they choose that date, considering that the play opened in 1996 and was supposed to be happening "now". It also sounded rather odd spoken instead of sung.
Anyway, without the "tune up and voicemail" bits they do lose a bit of the backstory but they fill it in later.

Mark is really rather talented to be able to ride a bike at a pretty good clip and still belt out "Rent". (Okay, I'm sure it was probably recorded later. Don't spoil my fun). The whole "Rent" sequence was cool. The night and the darkness make the flames "as they burn the past to the ground" stand out and it's just cool. It was neat to see Mimi from the beginning, also lighting her eviction notice on fire from her balcony under Roger and Mark's. She and Roger shared a Look.

But since they didn't have the plot exposition before, and the song wasn't interrupted by the phone call from Maureen so the verse that starts "How can you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?" doesn't make that much sense yet unless you already know the story.

Benny's arrival amidst the flaming eviction notices is just brilliant cinematography. But as he drove through the flames after the song I couldn't help but think about how that has potential to be really bad for his car.

"You'll See Boys" came next and quite a bit of it was spoken. It sounded quite odd to me to hear it spoken, but that might be just because I'm used to hearing it all sung. Still, some of the phrases rhyme, and they're just rhythmic. But I was glad when they did start to sing, I like Taye Diggs - Benny -‘s voice. He did a cute little dance on the curb too.

Here's where they reveal that Roger is back from a year of withdrawl and that Mark has been fired and dumped by Maureen, who's now dating Joanne. Since Angel and Collins haven't joined up with the group yet, they don't the last verse of the song, a bit of a bummer because I like that part of the song.

Angel turns up, looking like a decidedly ordinary (but cute) young man, banging on a plastic bucket with his sticks. He finds Collins, but alas, "You Okay Honey" is entirely spoken, and they skip the whole "I do not take no" part, which I like. Bummer there.

Roger takes to the roof for "One Song Glory", which of course he nailed. Here's where they take care of his past, with his girlfriend. Since the song talks about her, it makes sense that there are flashbacks to the two of them meeting, going out... getting drugs... taking HIV tests... and the results. They don't actually show her dying, or killing herself as the case may be. They don't mention that she committed suicide at all. Maybe she didn't in this world? :)

All of the flashbacks made the song that much more powerful, and I think it was a more effective way of showing why Roger won't leave the apartment and why he's so focused on his "one great song" rather than the two lines that Mark has in the beginning, "His girlfriend April left him a note saying "We've got AIDS..."
Definitely an improvement there.

Roger comes downstairs to go back inside and Mimi is lurking on the stairs. I loved how she watched him for a moment and then very obviously blew out her candle. If it were me, I would have finished going up the stairs first.

I've always been fond of the song "Light My Candle" because I thought it was a cute song. After I've seen it I'm glad to say that it is still a cute song. Roger, being the gentleman that he is, puts his coat around Mimi's shoulders when she says that they turned off her heat. And he looks totally embarrassed when she catches him checking her out. I laughed a bit when she blew her candle out for the first time, very slick Mimi. (Note sarcasm). Roger is also slick when he puts her candle out so that she can't find her drugs. He's well intentioned right there. I loved the expression on his face when he says "Maybe it's not the moon at all, I hear Spike Lee's shooting down the street"

The next morning, Collins and Angel show up at the apartment. Since it's now Christmas morning, some of the lyrics had been altered. Again, the dialog before Collins mentions Angel is spoken, but I was starting to get used to it by now.

Angel makes her grand entrance looking terribly cute in her Santa Christmas outfit and she launches into "Today 4 You" which is just fun. The rather dumbfounded expressions on Mark and Roger's faces as they watched Angel dance and listened to her story was excellent. I loved when she was banging around with her drumsticks on the table and on the pipes. Very Stomp-ish of her.

Maureen calls and Mark goes to rescue her protest after enduring some teasing from Collins first. I missed how this flows from "You'll see Boys", again showing more of Angel's understanding of everybody, or specifically Roger. I guess that over-all Angel seemed a little less "All-knowing" in this version.

Mark goes to the performance space, where Maureen is not present, but Joanne is. This made for a rather awkward scene as the two met and Joanne reluctantly accepts his help, thus leading into "Tango Maureen"
I had to grin at the often quoted "Say something, anything" line.
I loved Joanne's expression when Mark started singing the "Tango Maureen". Essentially she looked at him as though he were crazy, but then she joined right in.
There's a lovely dialog bit when they are dancing which is not on the OBC recording, so I don't know if it's in the play or not, but I thought it was great:

Mark: Where did you learn to tango?
Joanne: With the French ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's. And you?
Mark: With Nanette Himmelfarb, the rabbi's daughter, at the Scarsdale Jewish community center.

This did not replace the "It's hard to do this backwards" line. I kinda liked how that line was in there. Mark is leading and then all of a sudden Joanne takes the lead over and he kinda trips over his feet.
"You should try it in heels," Joanne responds and then drops him.
Mark hits the cement floor with a crack and dreams the rest of the song.

I thought that Mark's dream was an interesting take on it. In a stage show, they should just do a fantasy scene and bring more dancers on, like he's imagining it, but I suppose since the movie is "realistic" they can't just do that. (Yes I don't know how they do this song on stage).
It worked very well visually, with all the dancers in black except for Maureen as the lady in red, with Mark and Joanne looking on as she moved from dancer to dancer.
I liked the shots of the three of them dancing together as well.

And actually, Mark's "I feel great now" line makes more sense because he says it as he gets up from the ground.