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SYNOPSIS:
Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic. RENT is Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer and Tony Award winning musical, one of the longest running shows on Broadway.
MOVIE
REVIEW
While this reviewer continues to wonder why he was assigned to review this DVD which, by the strictest sense, isn’t a movie, he realises that he is quite a fan of musicals. And because he isn’t the wealthiest columnist of the pack, he has to seek his craving for musicals on the movie screens. How else would you explain the fact that he has been reviewing movies like the slew of High School Musical franchise (no one else wants to be associated with them, he can tell you)? But things weren’t that bad in the past, because he remembers going to Kallang Theatre and Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch musicals like Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and The Phantom of the Opera when they toured Singapore. And he only managed to get affordable tickets, thanks to student concessions. Fast forward a few years later, and he cannot remember when was the last time he actually paid to watch a musical “live”, and definitely not in 2005 when the Tony Award winning musical toured Singapore, and featured Hong Kong singer Karen Mok in a leading role.
So here this reviewer is, watching the musical which was filmed “live” on Broadway, thankful that there are still nice people like his webmaster who hasn’t forgotten his love for musicals in these times of financial crises.
The 152 minute musical (there was a 2005 movie adaptation directed by Chris Columbus and starring Rosario Dawson) tells the story of one year in the life of a group of New Yorkers struggling to live life in what we can interpret as the slums of New York. The story’s two male protagonists are Mark and Roger, two roommates who, well, sing very well to tell this tale of love. A tragedy has made Roger numb to life, while Mark tries to capture life’s essence through his attempts to make a film. Together with other colourful characters, they deal with AIDS (cue the M18 rating), paying rent, loss and above all, love.
If you are a fan of musicals, you’d know the tune that keeps tells you how 525,600 minutes make up a year. The inspirational song showcases the ensemble’s chemistry nicely, and you may be rolling a tear or two (given the story’s context) at the end of the tune. Having said that, the rest of the songs in this musical isn’t your usual big numbers you may hear in other big budgeted productions like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera. Forget “Can You Hear The People Sing?” and “Masquearde”, people.
When you watch a “live” musical, you get to see the whole stage (actually, the comfort level depends on how much your ticket is), but in this recording, the producers have edited the stage musical in such a way that you’d know which are the sections of the stage which should garner your attention. Close up shots of cast members singing expressively tracking shots of cast members standing in formation are things which you do not get when seated in the theatre. But there is something you don’t get while watching a DVD of the performance – the magic of hearing the music “live”. Sure, this reviewer isn’t rich enough to afford a high end sound system to hear this “magic”, but given his memories of watching “live” musicals when he was younger, this feeling is irreplaceable.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains a few interesting featurettes. Rent: The Final Days on Broadway is a 37 minute documentary which has the cast and crew talking sentimentally about how they will miss the musical even it is not longer on Broadway. The Final Curtain Call is an eight minute clip which sees the song “Seasons of Love” being sung for the last time on Broadway – another sentimental clip. The Wall is a six minute clip which shows you the fan messages on the wall, a sign of how well loved the musical is. The Final Lottery brings you to the scene of how a lottery is conducted to pick fans who will sit in the two front rows during the show – we love the enthusiasm of the fans captured on camera. Included on the disc are also Previews of other Sony releases like Across the Universe and Saawariya.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer is wonderfully clear, and the musical is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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