Movie Musicals That Got It Wrong: RENT (Part Two)
I'll start by saying that I don't think it's a coincidence that both RENT and The Phantom of the Opera released "live performance" recordings years after the movie adaptations came out. In both cases, the movie failed to capture the essence of what made the stage production so enjoyable. I went into some detail about the stage production in Part One . Part Two will focus on what the movie adaptation does to improve, or not improve, upon its source material. Even though I don't think RENT (2004) is a good movie, I also don't think it is a particularly bad one. There is nothing that stands out as a glaring "Oh my god I can't believe they did this I can't look" like Phantom 's casting of Gerard Butler. RENT the movie was directed by Chris Columbus, who has a track record of making films that are competent, if not cutting edge. Of course, RENT 's main problem is that it needed someone who was cutting edge, who was willin