This was a remarkably riveting film that has been on my list and radar for some time. It turned out to be well worth its accolades. It tells the story of the creator of the mega-musical Rent, Jonathan Larsen but not in fact the successful writing of it but rather his earlier life, That life was one of living that of the sort of people he created in the musical. Artists waiting on tables, creative struggles for one key song, relationships and their ebb and flow, getting someone (anyone!) to even acknowledge what you are doing let alone ensuring that it can come to tuition (i.e. performance).
The structure of the film was intriguing – and, initially a little baffling as we moved between the major story strand of him trying to get together a run-through of the latest work he was doing. But for this he had one essential song for a central character still to write. This was pointed out to him by Stephen Sondheim (!) who saw his original talent –and, of course, with that pressure and the looming run-through with its attendant complications and issues, this was the one song that he just could not easily write.
However, this story strand was interspersed with excerpts of him doing a one-man show/stand-up about an earlier version of that work, an effective theatrical device once one got used to it. At the end however, he did have a successful preliminary run through of the work he was doing (on which he had also been working) which provided a climax of sorts to the film. But it was only after that had happened that reference was then made to his next work Rent and his tragic sudden death on the night it was due to open. This showed the characteristic and original mixing of documentary-style fact and fiction; all the major elements were, it seems, true and accurate but I suspect that some/much of the inter-personal dialogue was fictionalized, although presumably making use of the contemporaries who were a part of Larsen’s life at that time.
I got a vividly strong sense of what it must have bene like to live that sort of life in NYC in the 80’s with the looming and ever-present spectre of AIDS glowering over all along with the vivid and at times painful depiction of the life of an impoverished artist struggling to both create and live. However, this was not a major aspect of the film but rather something that all were aware of/living with (or, at that time, dying from). But while it was largely dourly realistic, there were typical ‘movie musical’ moments, such as the big song and dance number at the Moondance Diner which gave a ray of sunshine to the proceedings and reminded us what the ultimate aim was of creators such as Larsen.
Larsen received a remarkable performance from Andrew Garfield who was a stunning revelation – charismatic all the time; and the part was not a flashy or spectacular one. I knew Garfield as an endearing Spiderman and then, revealing his acting chops far more clearly, as one of the central players in the NT Angel’s in America. But this performance was, I felt in a different league.
A marvelous experience then – although I must, ironically, admit that Rent is not one of my favourite works.