rent the film work for exactly four minute . the opening credit role and then the cast sings 521 and 600 minute and it all downhill from there . what follow a nice opening be a film so pointless and so banal and you will ask a my wife do for the two and half hour back you spend watch rent . i remember when rent open on broadway . i remember i have a buddy who camp out on the street to see the play . i remember people call rentheads would record the show in other city and trade bad audio and video of the off broadway production star molly ringwald and doogie howser . it be a phenomenon base on the tragic death of it creator jonathon larson more than a well make show and and so the play stay untouched and unfiddled around with and for who would dare touch the genius of larson . who would dare walk on his grave . if i be the director of this movie i would have beg for a rewrite . if ever there be a film die for some heart and some central core and it rent . it jumble and it messy and it contain character that do not mesh and there no coherence and no one worth root for and no one worth hating and and that wrong . the passion and drive of the clunky play may work a live theater and heck cat work a live theater and but rent be charmless and pointless and and murky and it really shouldn not be . rent follow the exploit in the year of the life of mark ( anthony rapp ) the angst ridden film maker and roger ( adam pascal ) the rockstar with aid and mimi ( rosario dawson ) the heroin addict stripper with a heart of gold ( and aid ) and tom ( jesse l. martin ) the unemployed professor with aid and angel ( wilson jermaine heredia ) the drag queen ( with aid ) who steal tom heart and maureen ( idina menzel ) the performance artist and mark ex girlfriend and and joanne ( tracie thomas ) the lawyer who fall in love with maureen . they be the bohemian and they can not pay the rent and they can not pay the heat and and everyday they stand the chance of be evict . so they sing . they sing a lot and and at one point at a protest and they moo . that cause a near riot . i want to laugh and but i do not because i do not want to be mean to the rest of people in the theater . but i have a feeling they be watch a different movie cause they keep clap . why be this film so joyless . why be the main character so whiny . why do rent have no real heart . the film just assume that we the audience will like these people and so it make no attempt to allow them to win our heart . it assume that because the script have introduce u to them that they be friend . but half the film revolve around how these people do not get along . they be disgruntle about life and yet the film praise that fact and instead of do anything about it they whine . they hate progress and they protest the idea of personal responsibility and and fight the man and for what . nothing but a crappy apartment in new york city . the most honest moment in the film come when the mark film a homeless woman who be be harass by the cop . the homeless woman look at him and scream something like do not exploit me and get a job . these people be not happy and the lifestyle they promote be pointless and the film fail to take a stand on any of it . the film also doesn not work on a purely technical level . the dialog clunk haphazardly into the song . the actor take a moment to reflect before the song take off and and none of the song be worth hum when you leave the theater . but you will have 521 and 600 minute attack you in your dream . if the screenplay would have be retool to fit the screen instead of the screen try to replicate the stage a good movie would have emerge . but rent will appeal only to those who love the play . the other glaring problem be the actor seem too old to embody these part . with actor cull from the original off broadway cast and it cast and even deep gloom over the film . we all have to grow up and this group of 30 somethings edge on pathetic . a new cast of twenty somethings would have work a bit well . so save your money . you thank me i promise .