Boy meets girl. Girl is a prostitute. Girl and boy fall in love. Girl told to dump boy or he will be killed by her 'owner' boss. Girl dies in petals.

"The use of Your Song will keep Elton John in flowers for another three months."

"A movie of delicious sound bites, but not one to be eaten whole in one sitting."

"Not a mainstream movie, an art house movie with lots of hype."

"All it needs is love."

"Terribly disappointing movie - I expected so much more after Romeo and Juliet. The music used is familiar, and good, and this undoubtedly makes the film bearable. However, in the 'Like a virgin' scene I wanted to run away, it is so embarrassing. In all honesty this movie is just too much for this poor l'il country girl."

"Woody Allen's 'Everyone says I love you' was much better."

"A veritable cornucopia of hot new young talent trying too hard. A joy, always, to hear Your Song, a trademark love song since it was written, however I objected to the use of other people's songs to rescue an otherwise run of the mill plot. And you can stick that pun up yer ass..."

"A workmanlike movie with no heart."

"Full of youthful exuberance."

Ewan McGregor plays Christian, a young man who falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), a performer in Moulin Rouge, Paris.

In highly stylized directing (a bit like a 1960's Batman meets expensive art house flicks of the time) the story is told in song - hits such as Elton John's Your Song and a couple of Madonna singles.

The Duke, who owns Moulin Rouge, wants to 'own' Satine a prostitute, but she has fallen for Christian, our hero. They scheme to have time together but then the Duke decides he wants exclusivity, threatening to kill Christian if the relationship continues.

Ending: Satine is shot dead during a performance after she kisses Christian.

"I will always love you, ooooooo, I will always love you."

"It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside. I'm not one of those who can easily hide."

Let's talk to the stars of the show Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Starts: "Babes, you both look great, and you can sing!"

The movie is very stylized. It is a musical without any of the warmth of, say, 'Everyone says I love you', Woody Allen's musical out at the same time (set in modern day Paris/New York) which also reuses other songs but is genuinely warm and funny.

A truly disappointing movie. We loved Romeo and Juliet for its challenging adaptation, however Moulin Rouge offers little new originality on top of this style (and, of course, in Moulin Rouge, the story is not as strong).

The way it uses golden pop oldie popular songs undoubtedly is why this movie was not avoided by the masses at the time of its release - this makes parts of it bearable. However, the Like a virgin song is truly, wincingly, awful.

The DVD has lots of extras. Beware. A documentary on the movie looks good, the problem is the movie itself just is too much (too challenging?). A pity. Perhaps we should have been in art house mode for this movie, when, in fact, we were in mainstream popcorn mode, a mistake.

We had a lot of goodwill towards Luhrmann after R and J, and he seems like a nice bloke - get a better story next time, mate.