rent (the movie)

I don’t normally go see movies by myself, but two weeks ago on “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving) I decided to do just that and decided on Jonathan Larson’s musical-turned-movie Rent. Rent, for anyone not familiar with the story, portrays/celebrates the Bohemian culture of New York’s East Village in the 1980s through the lives of 7 friends, most of who live on the margins of society. This group of friends is mostly poor and artistic, and several of them are gay/lesbian/bisexual and/or current/recovering drug-addicts.

Since I never saw Rent on the stage, I can’t comment on how well it translated from that venue to the screen. What I can say that the music powerfully drove the story forward and the characters were generally well-developed and appropriately complex. My one complaint in the area of character development is that I felt like Angel (Wilson Heredia), did not get enough screen time to establish the strength of “her” relationship to Tom Collins (played by Jesse Martin—most well known for his role in L&O), though her dramatic personality, love of life, and bond with the group as a whole came shining through.

The movie does not romanticize the lifestyle(s) chosen by these friends—rather, it explores the universal qualities of their experiences; their questions of meaning, finding their place in the world, the complexities of love and friendship, loyalty and betrayal, and the pain of dying. Their struggle against “the man” in the film is simultaneously political/philosophical and relational without being overly ideological. For example, Benny (Taye Dibbs), who is trying to get Mark (Anthony Rapp), Roger (Adam Pascal), Maureen (Idina Menzel) and Mimi (Rosario Dawson) out of their apartments is an old friend who wants to help them by involving them in the new development possibilities. And Maureen’s girlfriend Joanne (Trace Thomas) is a successful attorney who helps Mark get his film career started. Thus, instead of glorifying/demonizing individuals because of their group identity or career, the film causes the viewer to consider the false ways we classify ourselves, and suggests (not so subtly, but still beautifully in its theme song lyrics) that love is the only thing by which one should measure one’s quality of life.