Moulin Rouge is, musically and cinematically, an awesome experience to absorb. It's a musical. It's a drama. It's a visual feast. It's exhilarating. It's funny. It's heartbreaking. It's what all other movies classified as "musicals" wish they could be.

(I hereby grant permission to the studio to quote the above paragraph in tv ads, trailers, and other promotional memorabilia. Some limitations and restrictions may apply.)

Although the film is set in France in the year 1900, the music through which the story is told quotes just about anything and everything written in the latter half of the 20th centurey. From The Sound of Music, to Nirvana. From Marilyn Monroe, to The Police, to Madonna, Whitney Houston, and a whole bunch of other stuff I either forgot or couldn't identify.

The musical numbers are performed with Broadway-style dance routines, edited almost as if this was MTV, with a little Ally McBeal-esqe free association sequences thrown into the songs for good measure. Yes, the whole thing still takes place in the year 1900, with characters, costumes, and surroundings befitting the time.

The music itself is just fun to listen to. Instrumentally, it also jumps all over the board, from modern dance beats at one moment to orchestral accompanyment at the next. Throughout the viewing, I was continuously curious as to whether the actors were actually singing the pieces themselves, or lip syncing to someone else's vocals. I suspected it was actually them, but at times, it sounded so good that I had to wonder. Being the credit-watcher that I am, I found out soon enough. Yep. That was actually Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, among others, belting it out over the swells (certainly lip syncing on the film, but to their own studio-recorded vocals).

Visuals. Oh my. Where do I even begin? From the very first frame to the last after closing credits, it's nothing short of a spectacle to behold. I loved the recurring push-in, push-out shots of the city, with the signature top of the Eiffel Tower in the foreground. (That had to be CGI -- the first one was the most impressive of all, because it swooped over the hill like an arial shot, and then pushed straight into close ramp-ups on people's faces while they walked the streets. Seamless.)

The bright, flashy interiors of the Moulin Rouge during the music, the costumes, the giant elephant room, the elaborate paintings, sculptures, and decadant surroundings of Satine's bedroom all make for an out-of-this-world blast. The cinematographers knew how to make great use of what they had to work with, and they had a lot.

Even with all the visual splendor, sound, and fiery energy, it wouldn't be lasting fun without a great story, would it? So what is this one about? I'll borrow...

This story is about Truth. Beauty. Freedom. But above all, Love.

At its heart, soul, spirit, and everything else, it is a love story. A good one. I wasn't weeping on the floor or anything (mostly too impressed by the sensory input for that), but it was definitely affective.

And the acting (take a guess) was top notch. Not much more one can say about that.

Yes, Bitscape will definitely be shelling out for this DVD release when it comes out. Although I suspect that this is one of those films that really is best seen on the big screen, in all its celluloid grandeur.