In the shadow of AIDS and HIV the audience gets to experience a musical with roots in Puccini’s opera La bohème, which is set in the Alphabet City of New York City.  It is a location where artists and others with non-traditional life philosophies sought refuge including myriads of poverty stricken people.  Alphabet City also suffered from drugs and violent crimes during the 1980s, which is when Rent takes place and follows the fate of eight friends and lovers.  The social setting is almost more important than the characters in the film, as the atmosphere in which they live heavily colors their political, social, economical perspective on life.

The opening shot with the eight main characters on a stage allows the audience to draw that it is a stage musical moved to a set, as they sing the Seasons of Love.  Abruptly, the imagery moves from the countdown to one of filmmaker Mark Cohen’s (Anthony Rapp) 8mm films that show the gritty and poor part of New York that many want to escape.  Instead, Mark embraces it by showing it to the audience, which helps set the tone of the film.

Amidst the New York chaos, one character after another appears through song, as we get to know them as friends such as Mark’s roommate Roger Davis (Adam Pascal).  He is musician struggling with coming up with the perfect song while constantly remaining in a glum state pondering the past and his acquisition of AIDS through a dirty drug needle.  They have a friend Tom Collins (Jesse L, Martin), a gay non-tenured NYU college professor with AIDS, who often stays with them at their place.  Mark and Roger also have a former friend, Benjamin Coffin III (Taye Diggs) whom they now loathe, as he has become their landlord while imposing rules and rent on them, as he sold them out by joining the aristocratic society.  Simultaneously, Mark suffers from a broken heart, as his girlfriend Maureen (Idina Menzel) has left him for the IVY-League graduate Joanne (Tracie Thoms).  Last, but certainly not least, Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), a flamboyant transvestite, suffers from AIDS, but also expresses a strong affectionate love for Tom Collins that he reciprocates.  Together these eight characters go through a year of emotional ups and downs cornered by sadness, disappointments, and death which ultimately regains itself like bird Phoenix out of the ashes by spreading its wings of love.

The musical aspect attempts to carry a triumphantly poignant celebration of love and mutually painful struggle in the shadow of death and illness.  However, it is not always so easy on the ear, as it aurally provides some cinematic gracelessness.  Much of the awkwardness emerges in the story line driven by its overwhelming song and lyrics, as the audience almost never gets a chance to breath or contemplate the importance of each piece between the musical numbers.  In addition, in some instances the lyrics sound awkward through their gawky rhyming.  Besides the musical portion, the audience will also lose interest in the characters, as the film self-indulgently begins to entertain itself in the revolutionary undertones that displays by “sticking it to the man.”  In a story where people’s emotions are essential, as a viewer I almost felt cheated, because the psychological aspects of the characters were never fully portrayed in the way film only can provide.  Instead, the film leans too heavily on the music, as if it exclusively would bring about the emotional moments in the film, which makes it feel that the director Columbus never elevated the stage musical to what cinema could help create.  In the end, Rent provides a superficially intriguing musical, but never reaches the accomplishments of other contemporary film musicals such as Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Chicago (2002), or even close to the many musicals from the 1950s and 60s.

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