525600 minutes

525600 seasons

I loved that song. It's one of the songs from the movie "Rent". It seems that Adam and I have been on a movie binge, which would make sense since it's the summer and there are no shows on. Donald found his dude, a Survivor was declared, Taylor is standin' tall for all sexy grey haired 29 year olds, and well the Food Network always has new shows....
Tonight we watched "Rent", I really wanted to see it since we saw it when we were in New York we saw it. So we rented "Rent". It was, ok, I guess. It seemed to me it was more a Cole Notes version of the play, except the same length. The subtleties of the play were lost. They really spelled things out for you in the movie. For example a lot of the characters have AIDS and in the play you are left to figure that out on your own, but in the movie the characters tell you. In the play there is one point where it's made obvious that they have AIDS but it's not so in your face the whole time. (and I say AIDS not HIVpos 'cause they are all near death, so I would assume it's AIDS) All in all I preferred the play. Even though in a movie there are more sets and costumes and it's more elaborate, I think it detracts from the story after having seen it on Broadway. You notice the sets and the costumes more than you notice the plot and the actors. It's like looking at a black and white picture or a colour one. In the black and white one, you see the texture of skin and hair, but in a colour one you notice the colour of the hair, you wouldn't tell right away if it was fine or course. I feel the "Rent" the movie and play are like that. Also my experience with the play was amazing; I was front row centre after all....
I also found the movie to be rather didactic. Rather than document the lives of the characters through the year like the play does, the movie focuses so much on AIDS that it feels like over kill on showing how those with AIDS still deserve dignity. There is a moment in the play where there is a song about dying with dignity, but in the movie they gave that song more time than in the play. Adam remembers that song as one that was sang while they changes scenery, in the movie there was a long montage dedicated to it.
Also in the movie it seems that they tried to make it more political with the lesbian couple getting engaged. I am not sure if the intent was to show that lesbians are people too, which is lame. I know they are people, duh... but it was too obvious and therefore tacky. BUT, if the producers where doing to show how ahead of the times the play was in it time, (it takes place in the early 90s, before all of the issues now... which is a whole new entry, don't even get me started!) then it is far more prolific.
Well that is my rant on "Rent", I preferred the play, although I guess poetic license comes into play when taking something from the stage and bottling it.


Here is the entry from my old journal detailing us seeing "Rent" (the play)
2005-10-11 - 5:16 p.m.

I'm back from holidays and it was fun, except for the bad weather. So I don't want to whine about it being too hot, but it was, but mostly because I packed for a typical fall day in Alberta. But the East coast was having some crazy weather. When it wasn't scorching hot, it was raining cats and dogs. The last day we were there it was nice; there being New York. We saw we did we are addicted to Broadway (by we I mean me.) We saw Rent, it was AMAZING. They have a lottery wherein you arrive 2 hours before the show, write your name on a little ticket and hope for it to be drawn, if it is, you win. But you still have to pay for your ticket, but it was only $20 USD. Oh yeah for the 1st 2 rows. So Adam and I went on Saturday and we didn't "win", so we went back on Sunday and I "won" I was so excited I gave a little whoo hoo and a little skip into the line. Oh there were about 150 people there watching me make a fool of myself. But I couldn't be all cool and clam, INTERNET it was RENT!!!! So our seats were awesome, they were 1 seat off of centre, but since the orchestra was on the left side of the stage, we were by all purposes centre stage, oh yeah FRONT ROW!!!! Sigh, it was amazing. We also saw "Sweet Charity" with Christina Applegate, she was great, she can sing, she can dance and it was great great great! At Sweet Charity I saw this guy that I knew but I couldn't place. Adam didn't know it at all so it wasn't someone I knew from our life so I was only someone I knew. Then I realized it late, it was Mig from "Rockstar INXS" hmmm cool. I also saw John Lithgow, and Newman from Seinfeld.
I was cool though, I didn't go all freaky, but com'on people, I live in Alberta, these are people I'll never see in the flesh. It was really surreal to be 10 meters from Christina Applegate, it's so intimate that you feel akin to her, but then you realize, "hmm BIG star, you can't befriend her! silly Albertan girl!". But it was amazing, the whole trip was great. I have a whole cache of wonderful memories, and I love Adam even more!