Monday

[shadesong]

Administration
Hello to new-met friend harkalark and new reader ahf!

Medical
Kinda fucked up. Exhaustion + nausea, vision & word fuckery, and trouble breathing, which is a newish one as of the last few weeks.

RENT
docorion: "You look like that movie kicked your puppy."
Me: "That movie skinned my puppy and wore the skin as it fucked the corpse up the ass."

Keep in mind that I know every word of the play. So I know every place Chris Columbus went Horribly Wrong.

There will soon be line-by-line Shadesong Commentary on this. Oh yes.

Too sick-feeling to talk more right now. *nod*

Comments

}:-(

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Bummer. I, however, haven't seen the show and haven't memorized the soundtrack. Will I have such severe issues with it?

*smooch* Feel better.

Re: }:-(

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I'd never seen the play and I liked it just fine. Some of the plays Major Plot Points didn't kick in until after the fact when I was reading other people's reviews though.

Re: }:-(

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Tom and Gwyn liked it quite a bit, although Gwyn had some "Erf?" moments with early timelining - which makes sense when you consider that they changed Act I from one night to three days, but forgot to change half the lyrics that referred to things happening/having happened "today"/"tonight".

[devi77.livejournal.com]

I've been too afraid to see Rent because I love the play and have listened to the soundtrack many times. Given the things I've heard from various people, I think I might just skip seeing the movie. It seems like it will just make me angry.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*nod* It might.

I'm trying to decide what to advise in that regard. It pissed me off. A lot. But it seems to work for people who don't know the play.

And it would be good for lots of people to get into it, only because that'll mean lots of people want to see the play - which will keep the *real* version of RENT around for years and years.

But you may find yourself trying to stifle repeated "What the FUCK?!?"s, like I did...

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

A slightly different perspective:

I loved the play. I've seen the play 50+ times. Hell, I worked on the national tour during the Boston leg of the tour. I thought the movie was a decent screen adaptation that focused on certain plot threads, as you see in any stage or book to screen adaptation. My suggestions for watching it:
1) Close your eyes as soon as the song "Rent" starts. It's the only thing Columbus really butchered.
2) Pay no attention to the fact that Benny shows up demanding the rent AFTER the aforementioned butchered song.
3) Prepare to cringe if you liked Mark's character development as Observer (it was shot, but cut from the film)
4) Enjoy the rest. The timeline of the show actually always bugged me. It seemed TOO short, so I didn't mind the expanded timeline. The rearrangement in the movie bugged me a LITTLE, but not enough that I was made angry by it. I know some people want to hunt down Chris Columbus and beat him about the head with a broken bottle while shouting "Baby killer!", but really... there are some things which were unnecessary and those I could have done without, but some things were necessary to put the play onscreen. A filmed version of the stage show would have been eminently uninteresting and, in the end, I felt that the actors didn't even make the transition as well as they could have (and for THAT, I blame the director.) So, things were cut to make it a) shorter, and b) focus on certain plot threads (I THINK they were trying to focus in on the Roger/Mimi plot, but I could be wrong... maybe it's just because of the godawful placeholder song Larson stuck in to rewrite during previews and never got to), and things were added to make it more visually interesting. Again, some of these worked and some of them didn't, and some of them were flat-out "What the fuck?" out-of-left-field moments... but mostly served to contextualize things that were very ambiguous in the show (ie, the settings for "Will I?", "What You Own", and, to a lesser extent, "One Song Glory".)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

1) Close your eyes as soon as the song "Rent" starts. It's the only thing Columbus really butchered.

The only thing?

Oh, just wait til my writeup...

2) Pay no attention to the fact that Benny shows up demanding the rent AFTER the aforementioned butchered song.

And the fact that none of the pre-song setup occurs. And that Mark and Roger are, for most of the song, singing out into space instead of to each other. And the fact that Maureen and Joanne aren't introduced either - and that, where their lines are supposed to be, there's just awkward blank space.

3) Prepare to cringe if you liked Mark's character development as Observer (it was shot, but cut from the film)

And if you like Roger as a character at all, because instead of Roger-from-the-play, you get a bland schmoopy-eyed milksop.

4) Enjoy the rest.

Or not.

The timeline of the show actually always bugged me. It seemed TOO short, so I didn't mind the expanded timeline.

Hm. See, part of why Act I is crammed into one night like that is specifically to highlight how one night can be so incredibly powerful - how just one night can completely change your world.

Loses its power a bit if it happens over the course of three days.

I felt that the actors didn't even make the transition as well as they could have (and for THAT, I blame the director.)

Some of them did very well - as Adam pointed out, Idina Menzel was great. The weak link was Roger, and yes, I blame the director - because he was given a drastically altered character to play, and it was clear that neither Pascal nor Columbus knew what to do with this movie version of Roger.

things were added to make it more visually interesting. Again, some of these worked and some of them didn't, and some of them were flat-out "What the fuck?" out-of-left-field moments...

Oh, like, during "Rent", Mark and Roger burning their life's work to get a little heat in their apartment and... then... heaving the fire over the window because it looked pretty? Stuff like that?

[devi77.livejournal.com]

Hm. See, part of why Act I is crammed into one night like that is specifically to highlight how one night can be so incredibly powerful - how just one night can completely change your world.

Exactly. I loved the rush and the heightened emotion all crammed into the one night that completely changed the lives of every character. Extremely dramatic and powerful.

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

1) Close your eyes as soon as the song "Rent" starts. It's the only thing Columbus really butchered.

The only thing?

Oh, just wait til my writeup...

As I said, the only thing REALLY butchered... There was a lot that I felt didn't have justice done to it, but that was by far the worst in my opinion.

2) Pay no attention to the fact that Benny shows up demanding the rent AFTER the aforementioned butchered song.

And the fact that none of the pre-song setup occurs. And that Mark and Roger are, for most of the song, singing out into space instead of to each other. And the fact that Maureen and Joanne aren't introduced either - and that, where their lines are supposed to be, there's just awkward blank space.

Again, I thought that song and the sequence surrounding it was pretty awful. But there wasn't always blank space there, in many cases it skipped to the next part of the song. But, yeah, I'm not even going to TRY to defend that number

3) Prepare to cringe if you liked Mark's character development as Observer (it was shot, but cut from the film)

And if you like Roger as a character at all, because instead of Roger-from-the-play, you get a bland schmoopy-eyed milksop.

Roger was probably the worst-adapted character. Everyone else at least kept their core motivations, Roger got shafted. The pain that drove him through the entirety of Act One was gone, giving him really nothing to fight for. So, yeah... agreed.

4) Enjoy the rest.

Or not.

There is that option, yes. But this is my advice for viewing, not what everyone must do. And yes, my advice is to try to enjoy it for what it is, not get angry at what it's not. I said very similar things about the Lord of the Rings adaptation.

The timeline of the show actually always bugged me. It seemed TOO short, so I didn't mind the expanded timeline.

Hm. See, part of why Act I is crammed into one night like that is specifically to highlight how one night can be so incredibly powerful - how just one night can completely change your world.

Loses its power a bit if it happens over the course of three days.

I didn't think it wasn't powerful (like I said initially, I DO love the play.), it just always thought that it felt rushed, especially the development of Angel and Collins's relationship. As a theatrical device, the one night in which all fo that happens is great, but it strained my disbelief the first few times I saw it. I don't think it was fixed in the best possible way, but I think it would have been a lot harder on general film audiences to have left it all as written. I do, however, wish they'd left in actual cause/effect relationships like "Benny demands rent therefore they sing about how they're not going to pay it."

I felt that the actors didn't even make the transition as well as they could have (and for THAT, I blame the director.)

Some of them did very well - as Adam pointed out, Idina Menzel was great. The weak link was Roger, and yes, I blame the director - because he was given a drastically altered character to play, and it was clear that neither Pascal nor Columbus knew what to do with this movie version of Roger.

Pascal and Rapp I think were the weak links still playing as though onstage (for example, your comment about them singing at empty space in "Rent"... gods how I hated that sequence...). And no, neither Pascal nor Columbus had ANY idea what to do with Roger, so they turned him into Bon Jovi... yeah, I didn't like that.

things were added to make it more visually interesting. Again, some of these worked and some of them didn't, and some of them were flat-out "What the fuck?" out-of-left-field moments...

Oh, like, during "Rent", Mark and Roger burning their life's work to get a little heat in their apartment and... then... heaving the fire over the window because it looked pretty? Stuff like that?

As a matter of fact, that's EXACTLY what I was thinking of when I wrote that. That, the engagement party, and the Santa Fe vistas, really (in descending order of what-the-fuckedness.)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Everyone else at least kept their core motivations, Roger got shafted.

To a lesser degree, Mark did as well... but yes. Roger most of all.

I'm sorry. Roger doesn't find out he's HIV-positive while holding his girlfriend in a weepy montage.

"Close on Roger:
His girlfriend April left a note
Saying "We've got AIDS"
Before slitting her wrists in the bathroom..."

That's where Roger's coming from. Roger is angry, he's bitter - Roger has no. Fucking. Closure.

Or he's not supposed to, anyway.

it just always thought that it felt rushed, especially the development of Angel and Collins's relationship. As a theatrical device, the one night in which all fo that happens is great, but it strained my disbelief the first few times I saw it.

Thing is.... I've had nights like that. So we probably ought to poll the audience to see what's normal. :)

I do, however, wish they'd left in actual cause/effect relationships like "Benny demands rent therefore they sing about how they're not going to pay it."

Ummyeah. Kinda. :)

That, the engagement party, and the Santa Fe vistas, really (in descending order of what-the-fuckedness.)

Joanne's father:
"Mummy's confirmation hearings begin on the tenth. We'll need you - alone - by the fifth."

Oh, sure. They'd throw her an engagement party. Suuuuure.

And the Santa Fe John Tesh video. Yeah. Argh.

But yes. Throwing the heat source out the window because it looks pretty....

One of the things that I pointed out upon leaving the theater: for a movie that states that it's about the AIDS and homelessness epidemics - it's amazing how few homeless people were in it.

Where. The fuck. Was Tent City?!?

I am now playing the real soundtrack for docorion. Every time one of the Christmas Bells/Tent City interstitials comes on, I say "Oh, hey, it's the homeless! Remember them from the movie? No. No, you don't."

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

OK, it sounds like we disliked the same things, just not quite as extremely in all cases. :-)

Here's what I've noticed about Chris Columbus. He does not do pain well. He does it when he has to, but when it can possibly be excised, he does so. Angel's death had to happen, but seriously... the man DID NOT know what to do with the funeral sequence. Beautiful as it was (and it may just be that I cry EVERY TIME I hear that reprise, on CD, live, or in the film), that was the actors' doing. Same with Without You (which is suddenly about detox?). The man directs Fun(TM). Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, the first Harry Potters. Where there was genuine pain, it was conveyed because an actor was particularly good... when it was Script Angst, not so much. I didn't expect him to cut out as much unpleasant stuff as he did because, well, it's Rent, it's ABOUT unpleasant things.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Angel's death had to happen, but seriously... the man DID NOT know what to do with the funeral sequence. Beautiful as it was (and it may just be that I cry EVERY TIME I hear that reprise, on CD, live, or in the film), that was the actors' doing.

Indeed. Angel wasting away? The fuck? "Red Heat" is not, in itself, one of my favorite songs. But when Angel rises from those sheets towards the end...

"Take me -
Take me...
Take me out...."

And launches into the last desperate reprise of "Today 4 You"... I gasp. My breath stops, my heart skips a beat. It is powerful

Heredia was robbed of that.

And Diggs was robbed of his bleak, almost disbelieving "It's over." at the end of the song.

Same with Without You (which is suddenly about detox?).

Yeah. "Without You". The breakup song. Sung while Roger and Mimi are... still dating. o_O

I didn't expect him to cut out as much unpleasant stuff as he did because, well, it's Rent, it's ABOUT unpleasant things.

He should never have been allowed at this movie. Never.

[museumfreak.livejournal.com]

I missed the beginning of the movie/never saw the play . . . and so I came in just before Today for U . . . and it seemed perfectly true to what i had visualized as the characters singing the music.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Welcome back.

Sorry that RENT was such a bad experience for you.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

When I get my brain together, there'll be a serious breakdown as to why. Adam's thoughts on it are a good starting point, though.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

(Read review)

Yeah, I can see why that would suck for those like you who loved the original play.

[mizarchivist]

Chris Columbus turned the movie into Reavers?! ... That's so wrong.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

...and if you're lucky, he'll do it in that order.

[quillismightier.livejournal.com]

I guess my friend Jason and I are in the minority. We love the stage version, have the music memorized and travel to see it whenever the show is within an acceptable driving distance. We were annoyed with some of the changes but liked the movie none-the-less.

Adapting stage musicals to the American movie going audience is not easy. There were things in Evita, Chicago, and Phantom of the Opera that bugged the hell out of me, but that's what Hollywood does. Just look at their adaptations of our favorite books.

This really shouldn't shock anyone. My trick is that I never go into the film expecting anything. I never expected to see it exactly the same as the stage version. Therefore, with having no expectations I leave the theater content and having enjoyed myself.

[chiara607.livejournal.com]

I've seen the play twice, once in New York -- an experience I still remember as one of the most amazing of my life. I was listening to the soundtrack on perpetual repeat for a week straight beforehand.

The movie tore me to pieces, but in the opposite direction as you (or so it seems). I loved every minute, even as I was sobbing -- and I was sobbing convulsively during pretty much the entire second half. My fiance almost took me out of the theater because he was seriously worried about how it was affecting me.

You thought it sucked. I thought it was my favorite movie of the year. To each their own.

[seanmoon.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, Chris Columbus? Why don't they make him come up with his own ideas instead of letting him mess up other people's ideas?