The Early Showing -- a preview of RENT

I guess that sometimes I get to be the first to find things out, like how fine the contemporary rock opera, "Rent", works as a film. I had the opportunity to attend a preview showing of the movie "Rent" last night, the conversion of the Broadway musical, which was a modern day version of the opera, La Boheme. You probably already knew that.
The last musical I had seen on the Big Screen was "Chicago", and although it was real good, i had trouble shaking my feeling like we were watching a film of a stage production. "Rent" works differently because it plays better as a movie, where it just happens that the cast of vagrants, hetero/homo/bi-sexuals, addicts and HIV+ bohemians sometimes bust out into song instead of just speaking their mind. Normally we would all think that this would be very strange and maybe a little off-putting is this happened in real life, but since the songs and music RAWKS it makes it seem okay. Sure, you notice that people are singing rather than speaking, but the music matches the emotional weight that the themes carry, and well, it just works. All right, there are times when it's a little distracting when one of the lead characters is singing so dramatically while riding his bike that you are more worried that he will hit a New York pot hole and spill off his bike, but whatever, the rest was great.
For someone who has the entire script memorized, down to every lyric and musical note (no, I don't know the dance moves, so don't get cheeky), I did find it distracting that some of the script was actually spoken rather than sung as it was in the Broadway musical. Once I realized early on that this was the way it was going to be, I recovered quickly and found that I enjoyed what this interpretation brought to the story. By reinventing some of the visual elements for the screen, it was easier to see the depth in the characters, easier to see that their depravity was curtailed by some regret, easier to see that their losses and stife were eased by the sense of family that the band of outcasts had. This was all in contrast to the view that you get from only listening to the music or from seeing the musical from 150ft away in the enormous Fabulous Fox Theater.
At that distance, you can't see the emotion the way you need to in order foryou to truly appreciate the characters. The film, up close, makes the characters more human: you see the pain on Mimi's face as she suffers with her addiction; you see the love that Maureen and Joanne have for each other in the midst of their arguments; you see the loneliness that Mark feels while everyone around him couples-up. The film, up close, draws the connections between the characters, the story and their relationships that the musical, from great distance, struggles to make.
For someone who already likes the show, I would highly recommend this film. Leave your strict interpretations of the musical behind, because you will not get a word-for-word rendition of the stage script here. For someone who has not seen the show before, I can only tell you what I saw in the theater: the girl who sat next to my beautiful and very pregnant wife cried uncontrollably for the last half of the movie. My broker tells me that her reaction may not be typical of future results, but I have a feeling that others will feel the same.

On a side note: Did anyone find it funny hearing Roger singing about a Blaze of Glory when he looked so much like Jon Bon Jovi? (thanks, Elise)

Also: Roger standing on top of the desert mesa during the "America at the Millenium" song seemed too contrived, but it did show the extreme juxtaposition of his current situation vs. his previous and future homes.

One More: I missed the sub-focus on the homeless... "honest living, honest living"..., but I liked the repetition of the Life Support meetings. That worked well for developing the HIV theme throughout the movie, while pulling the friends closer together.