Rent (2005)Movie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 53 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    One of the best film musicals in years -- exuberant, sexy and life affirming in equal measure. Read full review

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    The movie is literally a series of showstoppers, unified by the impulse to turn life, at its scruffiest, into theater - into a rhapsody of the everyday. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    Columbus' schizoid approach works more often than not. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    Often dramatically jumbled and musically muddled - but every time the film seemed ready to tip into awfulness, the sneer on my lips was trumped by the lump in my throat. Read full review

  • 63
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    On film, Rent is the sound of one hand clapping. Read full review

  • 60
    Variety | David Rooney

    Director Chris Columbus has pasted the grungy "La Boheme" update onto film with slavish respect for the original material but a shortage of stylistic imagination and raw emotions. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post |

    Onstage, Rent is a series of power surges, but in the movie the songs leave you flat. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    With heavy HIV subtext and a couple of actors who have scored in other films, this La Bohme spinoff about fatal illness, drug addiction and eviction ought to be less of a slog than it is. Read full review

  • 30
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    Heart-breakingly awful -- slow, lugubrious, and misconceived to the point of baffling amateurism. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    Rent is commodified faux bohemia on a platter, eliciting the same kind of numbing soul-sadness as children's beauty pageants, tiny dogs in expensive boots, Mahatma Gandhi in Apple ads. Read full review

View more reviews for Rent (2005) on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ New York artists face eviction and more.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that given the nature of the subject matter, they might want to see it with their kids, or even before them, so that they can talk to them about the themes and the content of the film. After all, this musical features characters who are addicted to heroin, have AIDS, and argue with one another over class politics and property. Characters smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, smoke a joint, and appear purchasing and shooting heroin. One couple is lesbian, another is gay (one partner being a transvestite). Early on, a character is beaten bloody by muggers. One character pole dances in a strip club, others are HIV positive and one character dies of AIDS in a very sad scene. Peppery language includes two f-words, as well as other mild cursing (s-words, "ass," "damn"). But the eight protagonists are charismatic and committed to one another, which offers a healthy model of friendship and romance.
  • Families can talk about drugs, alcohol, AIDs, ambition and the alternative family formed by these diverse friends. How does Tom and Angel's relationship serve as the primary model for unconditional love and loyalty? How do the reconciliations of quarreling couples (Joanne and Maureen, Mimi and Roger) show that trust can overcome insecurities and jealousies? How does the film show a class conflict between landlords and renters or squatters?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Characters do drugs; characters argue and fight; in the end, they learn the value of love.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Character beaten by street thugs in beginning; a couple of HIV+ characters become visibly ill; one dies.
  • sex false3 Sex: Characters sing about love and sex; one dances at a strip club; another is a drag queen' couples are gay, lesbian, and straight.
  • language false3 Language: Lyrics include at least two f-words, as well as other mild and frequent cursing.
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: New York City streets include billboards, flyers, and neon ads for fictional brands.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Smoking, drinking, and pot-smoking; heroin purchase and shooting.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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