I saw Rent last week

I saw Rent last week on opening night with Becca and Jen. I just couldn’t wait to see how they’d adapted it to film, and I was reasonably satisfied. Thoughts:
+ The opening scared me. “Rent” is such a chaotic song, and even leaving out some of the bit parts (such as Joanne’s bit on the phone) didn’t calm it down much. The filmed version was still chaotic, and made me worried that the entire movie was going to move too fast. I did like the end of it though, with the flaming posters and screenplays littering the air like some crazy ticker tape parade. Visually pleasing.
+ Fortunately things settled down after the “Rent” number. I didn’t immediately like the altered timeline, but after some thought, I’ve decided that it made a little more sense when the events are spread out over a few days instead of everything through the Life Cafe taking place on Christmas Eve (like in the stage version).
+ Hearing the transitions (such as the answering machine messages) spoken instead of sung was both good (i.e more sensical) and disconcerting. It was hard to hear the words spoken without hearing the tune inside my head. Actually, it was hard to watch the whole movie without bursting into song myself.
+ Which brings me to a side note. I sing along with music all the time. In the car, at home, wherever. Now I admit that the majority of my singing is done when I’m alone, because while I can carry a tune, I’m not exactly Pavarotti. But point is — I sing all the time. I’ve recently come to the realization that not everyone does this. Why? Well, I do a lot of people-watching when I’m stuck in traffic, and if other people sang in their cars half as much as I do, I would see a lot of mouths moving. But I never see that. Perhaps I’m strange. I love to sing along.
+ Back to Rent though. “La Vie Boheme” was awesome on film. It’s one of my favorite scenes on stage as well (with all the action and coordinated dancing) and I’m glad it retained all the silliness and energy in the film. And randomly, I noticed during this song that Mark is really skinny.
+ The reprise of “I’ll Cover You” is always moving, but WOW. The film version gave me goose bumps. The finale also gave me goosebumps. So there were some things that did work better on film.
+ “What You Own” is arguably my favorite song from the musical, and I wasn’t totally satisfied with its treatment. I guess what I like about the song, and the staging on Broadway, is how Mark and Roger play off each other. Separating them until the end of the song weakened that, although for the first time I realized that they were probably always supposed to be in different places during this song.
+ They abbreviated “Goodbye Love,” and I really missed the part where Mark and Roger argue with each other. “But who Mark are you?? Mark has got his work, they say Mark lives for his work, and Mark’s in love with his work, Mark hides in his work!”
+ I was pleasantly surprised at Rosario Dawson’s singing ability, and Tracie Thoms (the only other cast member that didn’t originate her role) was great. The synching of the soundtrack and acting could have been better though, for all characters. Clearly the actors recorded their parts in a studio and not while they were actually acting the parts, and I’m ok with that, but there were places where the lip synching was a bit too obvious. Overall, the sound was much more polished and smooth than the stage soundtrack. I haven’t decided which I prefer, though I did buy the movie soundtrack to give it a chance.
+ Overall I liked it. I want to see it again to see how it stands up to a second viewing. I have a feeling that I might like it better the second time now that I know what to expect.