"No day but today"

Watching the movie version of "Rent," the stage musical from the 1990s about the late 1980s, I have to admit I was impressed. It's a good score and a great theme, but I wonder if it matters in 2005.

As I sat in a nearly empty theater on Thanksgiving afternoon, I was thankful that few others had come to see the film. I like a quiet theater. But I was also disappointed because the film deserves wider viewing than will likely result outside America's cities and urban sophisticates.

Despite the fact that I enjoyed the movie, the critics were pretty harsh -- and there are some good reasons for a thumbs down. Putting those reasons aside, I could still recommend the film for entertainment.

The film takes place at the end of the 1980s, a transition year in so many ways -- from the end of the cold war to the end of the millennium. The fin de siecle attitude is well expressed among the ensemble -- they are beat up after the '80s and ambivalent about the future. This is one reason the film does not resonate very strongly in 2005: The '90s turned out pretty good for a lot of people, and the first part of the century is what has come to be the dark decade.

Other problems:
The Associated Press review I read said "Rent" was "of its time" -- meaning that it took place in 1989 and played in the mid-'90s. It captured a segment of the culture and society that was of the moment: a pre-9/11, pre-Giuliani New York instead of the neo-romantic version we have today. It was a gritty New York, a filthy New York, a smutty New York-y Bohemia that we all thought of as New York. It would kick your ass. That doesn't jive with today's impression of New York as the greatest city in the world. It seems as if the show would have been better in a decade, when enough time has passed that we have romanticized the bygone days instead of remembering them too clearly.
The cast is mostly the original Broadway cast. While this is helpful in the fact that they own their parts, they hardly can play angst-filled 20-somethings with much credibility.

The score resonates, and the larger theme of live for the now because there might not be a tomorrow can easily be applied to the post-9/11 world. Those characters have some heart, and the music conveys a mood. This show brought back Broadway at a time when people in the Heartland weren't paying much attention.

See "Rent" for the entertainment, and view it as a snapshot of its time. I suspect it will only improve with age.

-- Seattle