Hey, who shut off the power?

Oh, it’s you, director Christopher Columbus.

What happened, man? “Rent” started off so well and you were doing such a good job and then, pffft, the magic is gone. The film lost so much steam I thought the reel would stop rolling and the film would start to burn. You had a perfect blueprint to work with and instead of building on it, something bad happened and the whole thing started to collapse. Weird.

The beginning rocked. I loved opening with “Seasons of Love” and following it up with a neighborhood revolting in the opening number of “Rent.” I thought to myself, if the whole movie is like this, this could be an Oscar winner. You did a great job of taking the musical off of it’s one, kind of crappy, set and putting it smack dab into the middle of New York City. It was large, it was grand and the numbers really seemed to come alive in the new settings. I loved “Tango Maureen,” “Santa Fe,” “I’ll Cover You” and “Out Tonight.” Even “Over the Moon,” Maureen’s performance art piece, was done well, combining her silly piece with a serious riot.

Then “La Vie Boheme” came and what was supposed to be the crowning piece of the first act dragged on and on and all of the film’s momentum was gone.

After that, it just wasn’t the same. The second act is more plot-driven and the timeline goes quickly from New Year’s Day to next Christmas. The numbers in the second act are good, especially “Take Me or Leave Me” and “Without You,” and the music in the movie was fine but I really felt that things that should have had more impact, namely Angel’s death, did not resonate at all. I don’t know what you could have done differently, but all of the characters are supposed to love her and aside from the funeral service, we really don’t see their connection. Perhaps the small set on stage gives the characters a greater deal of intimacy than film can.

So, Chris, I have to give you three stars here, which is basically a B. Considering you had a masterful cheat sheet to operate with, that’s not that great. You had most of the original cast and they were excellent, although I didn’t care for Roger all that much. Kudos to Jesse Martin’s Tom Collins, Idina Menzel’s Maureen and Anthony Rapp’s Mark. I also thought that Rosario Dawson was very good as Mimi. She was the best one I had seen in the role and I have seen the musical three times.

To readers: If you like musicals, check this out. If you love “Rent,” check this out. If you don’t like musicals and don’t have a lot of patience, avoid this movie.

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