Rent

Based on Puccini's La Bohemia, Rent is the big screen adaptation of the Jonathan Larson hit Broadway musical of the same name, about 7 friends trying to survive life in East Village New York in the 80s. Half of them have AIDS, are taking drugs or used to take drugs, they don't have jobs or the ones that have a job are just making enough money to barely eat, and of course that they can't pay the rent. They don't care though, because they are bohemians and that's the life they want, focusing on their friendships and loves.

It's a musical, so for those who don't like musicals this is not for you. The story is dated too, I mean, AIDS is not that big these days as it was back then (still very important though), and the bohemian life is sadly kind of forgotten. Luckily for me that doesn't matter, I love the 80s and I also like musicals very much. I enjoy them. I'm also a lover of liberalism and the way of life portrayed in the movie. About Rent though, I've never seen the play, and I'm embarrassed to admit that before Team America last year I had no idea what this was about. I got a better picture earlier this year with the trailer, but my first impression that it looked gay and that the song was annoying. Upon repeated viewing though, the song got stuck in my head and I started liking it. After seeing the movie now, I still can't get Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes off my head, but is ok, because I truly love it.

The celebrated lives are those of Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), Collins (Jesse L. Martin), Maureen (Idina Menzel), Roger (Adam Pascal), Mark (Anthony Rapp), Joanne (Tracie Thoms) and Mimi (Rosario Dawson). And there's also Benny (Taye Diggs), who used to be their friend and roommate to Mark and Roger, but he married the building's landlord and failed his promise to not charge their friends living there. He's a suit now, and is trying to empty the buildings to build a cyberspace company. Mark and Roger still live there. Mark is a wannabe filmmaker who starts filming his and his friends' lives for a documentary. Roger is a musician still trying to write that one perfect song. He's emotionally down though, because he lost a girlfriend due to drugs and AIDS, so when Mimi, an exotic dancer, puts an interest in him, he pulls away because he knows she does drugs. They are both HIV positive. Mark was recently dumped by Maureen, a revolutionary performer who starts a protest against Benny, who Mimi used to go out with. Maureen’s new love is Joanne, a Harvard lawyer who gets easily jealous (rightly so) when Maureen flirts with other women and men, which happens a lot. And finally, and the hearts of the movie, Collins and Angel, who meet after Collins is beat up and robbed in an alley near the guys' apartment, and they quickly fall in love. Collins is an unemployed professor, and Angel is a street performer drag queen. They are also HIV positive.

The performances are amazing, with emphasis on Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Idina Menzel's. All of them put their hearts in these characters and you can feel it. The music is really amazing too. Many songs to love like the aforementioned Seasons of Love, and then Another Day and La Vie Boheme. The singing is great, and is all lip-syncing except for Over The Moon, which Idina Menzel sings live. But the lip-syncing works great here, especially if they actually filmed in the cold of New York. Either that or they did an amazing job simulating it, especially the breathing. Directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter movies) and adapted for the screen by Steve Chbosky, Rent is affecting and engaging, and after you understand that is ok that these people are singing on the screen, it all becomes natural and like me, you'll find yourself singing with them every song until the credits are done.