Expectations can be hard to live up to. And they're so important when you go and watch a theatrical movie. I'm not too sure exactly why I have a higher expectation to be entertained when I go to a movie theatre. Maybe it's the time and money and trouble that endeavour entails. Of course there's the advertising and what people say -- it all adds to your expectations. Sometimes it gets unrealistically high, so when the movie fails to live up to those expectations you feel disappointed.

So what did I expect out of "Moulin Rouge!"? From the advertisements, I gathered that it was a musical, with a love story. Certainly nothing that really looked all that interesting to me. Shannon and Eric raved about it, so maybe it wasn't so bad. When I showed up I didn't know what to expect. And we showed up late, which also didn't help. We showed up just before Nicole Kidman's entrance, a good 10-12 minutes into the movie.

This is what we missed. It's Paris, 1900. The Bohemian Revolution. Writer/ Poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) has been in a deep melancholy funk for almost a year. But one day he gets up from his bed and starts typing. Typing about a great love story taking place at the Moulin Rouge. A tragic love story because his love died (this would have been useful to know early on).

It was one year ago when Christian arrived to be a part of this glorious cultural scene. He quickly met Toulouse (John Leguizamo) and the rest of his acting troupe and fell in with them. Well, their best chance to get their great play "Spectacular Spectacular" funded was to catch the ear of Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), owner of the Moulin Rouge. And to get his ear you need the support of his star, the Sparkling Diamond, Satine (Nicole Kidman).

So off they go one night to the Moulin Rouge to speak to Satine. Ah, the Moulin Rouge -- music hall, bordello, gentlemen's club -- where the wealthy young men go to be entertained. It is here that Christian first sees Satine perform a number, captivating the audience with her beauty and charm. Tolouse arranges a private meeting for Christian. As should just happen in this musical comedies, The Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) has also gotten a private audience with Satine. Zidler wants Satine to charm the Duke into investing in the Moulin Rouge, to make it into a proper theatre.

Too bad that Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke. Too bad that she quickly falls in love with Christian. Too bad that the Duke wants Satine for himself. The rest of the movie is about producing the great play and keeping their love secret whilst Satine gets sicker and sicker.

So what does Moulin Rouge have going for it? They use contemporary songs in their numbers, the whole movie has a sort of surrealistic feel to it, the banter is witty and fast, and the acting is quite good. And yet, I pretty much hated the movie. Maybe I've seen too many movies or I'm told. In either case, I'm probably a bit jaded and I expected more. First of all I hate tragedies. Knowing that she was definitely going to die would have helped -- that's what I get for missing the first few minutes. I kept thinking that some miracle would happen and when it didn't I was quite disappointed.

For some reason I didn't particularly like the whole atmosphere. The whole movie has an unreal feel to it, which I'm sure is intended. But it felt more like a bad dream rather than something that was really happening. The camera speeded up and slowed down and it was hard to make out the dialogue at times. It has a very cult film look to it. Sort of weird and zany and fantastic and inscrutable with memorable lines and songs.

And about the songs. I hated most of them. Not so much the songs themselves as the rendition. The problem with using contemporary songs is that I'm already familiar with the song and when they're done in a different way it's just jarring. They modified the tempo and words to fit the mood and they cut and chopped the songs for effect and it was awful to me. Look at "Mamma Mia!", where the songs were pretty dead-on to how ABBA performed them. I couldn't get past the fact that they were butchering songs that I know and like.

In any case, the story is basic and uncomplicated (part of the problem with a musical, less time for plot). The acting is good. The song numbers are performed well. The whole camera work is good. It's an excellently produced and edited movie. It all boils down to whether it's your kind of movie. It wasn't for me. Take out the songs and develop the story a bit more and it would have been a more palatable movie for me. As it is I don't like it but I can recognize that it's well done.