AmateurMovieReviews.com

Rent is a recent film, but as everybody knows it was first a broadway show. Therefore it has merits on two levels -- as a story, in which case the credit really goes to the original show, and we can take note of some of the differences in story later -- and as a movie. An incredible thing about this show-made-movie is that almost all of the **original cast** from Broadway performs together in the film version. Even though I never saw the show before seeing the movie (though I knew a lot about the show because of its popularity and several friends who liked it), I think knowing that this cast worked together from the beginning adds something to the (already heavy) emotional weight of the movie.

Anyone who is comfortable with homo/trans/tri/heterosexual issues is going to love how this film (show!) treats them, and anyone who isn't should see this anyway to get a taste of how those kinds of differences are so unimportant in light of how we ALL deal with life and troubles in the same realm, as human beings.

The story is about a group of friends who live in Alphabet city in New York, living a Bohemian lifestyle, just trying to make ends meet, and dealing with critical issues like AIDS, multi-sexuality, depression, drug addiction and suicide. On top of that, they are dealing with issues of self-awakening, understanding of others, dealing with loss, and standing for what you believe in while still trying to survive.

Of course, this is a musical, so if you hate when you see a movie where people are constantly breaking into song, you may get annoyed with this. However, the story is absolutely profound and you should give it a chance. You are probably going to forget that they are singing anyway.

Let's look at the cast of characters; you could say that the main character is Mark, although the friends all play important roles. Mark is an aspiring filmmaker / starving artist who is interested in making documentaries about the reality of life on the street and the difficulties of inner city and poor life. He lives with best friend Roger, who is lovesick over a girlfriend who died recently. Mark's bisexual ex-girlfriend is Maureen, and she has now turned to women and is dating beautiful lawyer Joanne. Mimi, who lives downstairs from Mark and Roger in Alphabet city, is a nineteen year old heroin addict who works in a night club dancing and is in love with Roger. Last, Tom Collins, a good friend of Roger and Mark, visits from his job teaching at a university and brings Angel, a sweet transvestite, into the gang when he meets her at the beginning of the movie. The first scene of the movie is of the cast on an actual stage, singing the opening song of the musical. It is obviously not pretending to be anything but it's musical origin, and this beginning pushes forward immediately the main message of the story - that we can't measure our lives in minutes or events, only in the love we collect along the way.

In the beginning of the movie, Benny, another old friend who has now married into a political family and basically owns the dump he used to live in with Mark and Roger, tells them that they need to leave or pay all the past rent that they have ignored. Benny's wife's family wants to tear down the old buildings and build a recording studio and other fancy stuff. Maureen is staging a protest against the action and Benny offers them free board indefinitely if they stop it. Naturally, they refuse. We are introduced to their Bohemian lifestyle and hippie-ish beliefs when we see how they protest in the streets, burning things to stay warm and ignoring calls from their families on Christmas day. But this strange group seems happy enough just struggling to get by.

We meet, in the first few scenes, Mark, Roger, who remains pretty reserved all the time, and Collins and Angel, who finds Collins after he is mugged in the street and they become fast friends and then, lovers. We discover that Angel and Collins, both gay men, have AIDS, and so does Roger, though we learn it a little later. Angel is an advocate for and avidly attends Life Support meetings, a support group for people with AIDS. He encourages all the others to come, because they are in one way or another highly affected by AIDS. The story takes place in the 80s in the height of the AIDS epidemic, so although it seems like an out-of-proportion number of people in the story are HIV-positive, it is not unrealistic considering the height of ignorance that existed, and the high rate of infection, especially in poorer communities and among gays, We see people in the Life Support meetings dealing with feelings about the diseasea dn trying to live their lives normally in the grip of a scary unknown. We also meet Mimi in the beginning, when she goes upstairs to bother Roger, who pushes her away. His past haunts him every moment. He avoids going out with friends, and he avoids getting interested in anyone, especially Mimi. His previous girlfriend haunts him. They were both heroine addicts and we see in a wave of music how they fell in love and did drugs together, only to learn that they both have AIDS. We infer from what is shown that his girlfriend died. This is one place that the movie differs from the original show. In the movie, we don't know exactly what happens to Roger's ex-girlfriend, only that she died, seemingly from AIDS or maybe from an overdose, since he is particularly bitter with Mimi about her addiction to smack. But in the show, we hear that in fact, his girlfriend committed suicide when she got the HIV test results, leaving behind a note that said "we have AIDS". In my opinion, this would have been super-powerful and should have been included in the movie. Regardless, this is what makes Roger push away Mimi, not only his past but the fact that he has the disease now and doesn't see any reason to do anything but wait to die. Much of the movie is his friends convincing him otherwise.

We watch the evolution of the friendships as the whole group seems to gel. Angel is incorporated into the group, and she is absolutely full of life. Always dressing in bright colors, always joyful, always supportive and always encouraging the others to enjoy life and to support each other even under the worst circumstances (drugs? AIDS? Suicide? Most of these guys have had it pretty rough - and anyone who thinks this is an exaggeration is living too comfortable of a life), she is the lifeline of the group. And as we watch the relationship between her and Collins evolve, we fall in love with her too ... they have found a true love, in the face of all the terrible things. And they provide a good lesson for anyone who is not comfortable with bisexuality or transsexuality - one cannot help but feel deeply for the two of them in love. Sometimes it just takes a story like this for some bigotry to be fought - people need to see and feel that LBGQTA people fall in love and life just like all the straight and "normal" people. This is why it is so heartbreaking when we see that she is the first who begins to deteriorate under the influence of the disease.

We also are introduced to the crazy Maureen when we see her show, which is a protest against throwing all of the poor people out of their homes and building whatever they want. What is supposed to be a peaceful protest turns violent when the police are unleashed on the crowd for no reason, but the commotion they create by their attack is indistinguishable from if the crown actually started the riot themselves. This is supposed to be a real story, and a pretty realistic interpretation of a real riot that occurred there in the 80s. It is terrible, but in the end they all get away from the commotion okay, and Mark sells some footage that he shot of the riot to a news company so they will see what really happened at the protest. They go to a cafe to celebrate and run into who else, but Benny, who is responsible for calling out the police who initiated the violence. In a show like only broadway can produce, they sing about their Bohemian lifestyle, the strengths of their beliefs even in adversity, and laugh in Benny's face about how uncomfortable he is around the ideals that he himself used to have. This night, Roger and Mimi finally get together when they realize by talking that they both have AIDS and that life is too short to be cold to other people because you are scared. Roger has a difficult time, but he decides that it is time to put himself out there instead of hiding until the disease takes him over.

In the midst of all this, Maureen and Joanne, in a rocky relationship because Maureen is continuously too friendly with other girls (and guys), a behavior confirmed adamantly by Mark from their previous relationship, have some fights and some loving moments, all awkwardly in front of Mark, who still can't resist Maureen. After a big fight, as a resolution they decide to do the equivalent of getting married and make a life-long commitment to each other. There is a fancy engagement party (Joanne's family is obviously quite wealthy), which is another model for how the world should be, accepting of all sexual styles and preferences. The event goes beautifully until Joanne catches a drunk Maureen flirting with one of the catering waitresses, and they fight with each other and break up for good in front of everyone. This is when things start to break down for the whole group.

Roger and Mimi's budding relationship goes wrong when Roger finds out that Mimi had dinner with Benny to try to convince him to leave the guys alone in their home. It turns out that Mimi and Benny had had an affair a few months before, and even though we don't find out if anything actually happened at "dinner", Roger is fed up and refuses to see Mimi anymore. She goes back into a drug-filled world and after some time gets involved with Benny again. Angel's health rapidly deteriorates as the Life Support group gets smaller, although at last Roger, Mimi, and the others are attending all in support of each other. After some time, they lose Angel and despite their difference are brought together at her funeral. This part is very painful, and now the last happy couple is also broken. Collins' pain is very real and everyone feels the loss of the lifeline of the group. It has been less than a year since they met her, and now she is gone.

After the funeral, Roger leaves New York and drives off to Santa Fe, to wander in the desert and think about how angry he is with life. Mimi gets worse, does more drugs, and then gets lost form the others, living on the street. Mark is alone in his home now, working on a film of all their adventures together, balanced between the rest of his friends. Joanne and Maureen aren't talking. At the funeral for Angel they fight on their way out, and even Roger and Mark fight before Roger leaves.

After some time in New Mexico Roger realizes he's in the wrong place and heads back to New York. They are all looking for Mimi but she is nowhere to be found, they don't even know if she's still alive. Not even Benny has heard from her. When Roger gets back, it's Christmas again, just like one year ago when the story began. Collins has returned to visit and while they are talking the girls yell up to the apartment that they have found Mimi. This is the great finale of the movie. They bring her up, barely clinging to life. She is delirious. Roger sings a song to Mimi that he wrote for her while coming back from Santa Fe. They are realizing, when it is almost too late, that they need to live life to its fullest. Mimi seems to have died, but suddenly she comes back to life, giving her and Roger a second chance and showing them all that they should do the same with each other and in their friendships.

We can learn a lot from this movie, and i can never convey its emotional impact, it is only something you can understand from watching it. There are so many things wrong in the lives of these people, and they realize after it all they should be filled with the joy o living, the joy that Angel felt and imparted onto them until her last moments alive. This is a message that you can get from a lot of movies, but this story has such a huge impact because their lives are realistic, their problems are important and their ideals are reachable. The movie is full of uncomfortable issues, and it explains that we need to see past these problems if we want to enjoy this world. The message is absolutely valuable, straightforward, and real.

some of my favorite lines from the movie are:

-"there's only us, there's only this. forget regret, or life is yours to miss.... give in to love, or live in fear!" (finale, other songs, main theme)
-"you'll never share real love until you love yourself" (Roger to Mimi)
-"live in my house, I'll be your shelter. just pay me back with one thousand kisses" (Angel, "I'll cover you")
-"goodbye, love...hello, disease..." (Mimi to Roger, when he leaves for Santa Fe)

My favorite scenes are:
-when Collins and Angel sing "I'll cover you" in the street, because it is a raw moment of the beauty and purity of their love.
-Angel's funeral, when Collins sings in front of the others; the pain is real, and by suffering it with them we learn something.
-After the funeral, in the graveyard, when they fight. because their pain is raw; they just want to be happy, and it tears them apart.
-the finale, of course. not just because Roger and Mimi can be together. Because the words are so beautiful, and the message so solid.

Please watch this movie. I don't think it made it into the mainstream, because it is sort of a cult story, and deals with a lot of controversial issues, not to mention the musical nature of it. But even if you are not as sentimental as I am about the message, the movie has a lot to say that is worth hearing, and I think everyone should experience it at least once. I am unable to describe how it affected me. I am not gay, I am not Bohemian, I am not a hippie, or any of the stereotypical things that you think a person who loves this movie would be. I simply love the message that we have to embrace life. We hear it time and time again but we don't understand it. We don't appreciate the weight of our friendships, the value of our minutes with them, and how lucky we are when so many have to deal with adversity. And seeing the joy through that adversity, lots of adversity, is the miracle of Rent.