“Moulin Rouge!” is visually captivating but I did not care for the characters nor did I care for the music. Few musicals may look as spectacular as this but the best ones feature characters we can invest in and songs we want to sing along to.

Set in turn of the century Paris, “Moulin Rouge!” follows Christian (Ewan McGregor “Trainspotting”, “The Island”), an aspiring young poet from London. He falls in love with the glamorous courtesan, Satine (Nicole Kidman “Australia”, “The Golden Compass”), but she must pretend to be in love with a cruel aristocrat (Richard Roxburg “Van Helsing”) if the Moulin Rouge is to be successful.

Sadly, Ewan McGregor cannot sing particularly well. It is a fatal flaw in any musical to have a star that cannot sing. Nicole Kidman is actually pretty funny as Satine and her singing is a little better than McGregor’s. The romantic chemistry between Christian and Satine is not anything special. Jim Broadbent (“The Iron Lady”) and John Leguizamo (“Spawn”) also appear in the movie but leave little impact. Richard Roxburgh is tedious as the villain. Kylie Minogue (“Bio-Dome”) has a cameo and you find yourself wishing she had a more prominent role considering she can sing.

The music in “Moulin Rouge!” is fairly strange; most of the singing scenes combine bits and pieces of a variety of songs that do not really gel together. One sequence contains bits and pieces from “Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”. I was left very puzzled by the music choices of the filmmakers. The film still looks fantastic but I cannot really recommend a film on looks alone. I was struggling to care about the characters and the story, which all felt rather clichéd. Maybe some will like this avant-garde musical but it was not really for me.