Mark pines over former girlfriend Maureen (Idina Menzel), a performance artist who has taken a lesbian lover, attorney Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Love also blossoms for their buddy Tom Collins (Jesse L. Martin), a philosophy teacher who falls for the saintly, HIV-positive, transsexual street drummer Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia, a Tony Award winner for the role on Broadway and the show-stopper among the performers in the film).

And what are artists without a common enemy? Taye Diggs plays Benny, a former Bohemian who wed the landlord's daughter and has gone back on a pledge to let his old artist chums live rent-free and is now threatening to evict them.

The weakest of Larson's songs generally are bunched in the film's first half, and the story and characters likewise take time to warm up to. A sense of real empathy and camaraderie finally begins to emerge about halfway through with the big group theme song "La Vie Boheme," a rollicking number that nevertheless comes off as vaguely disappointing because of its austere staging.

The real musical highlights are Heredia's lively dance-and-drum bit "Today 4 U" and Menzel and Thoms' love-hate duet "Take Me or Leave Me." At times, some of the other numbers have the montage look and feel of music videos, while a performance-art protest piece Menzel's Maureen delivers is just irritating.

The bass-heavy accompaniment has the annoying precision of a metronome, the music often loud enough to undermine the voices, especially in scenes of soaring group vocals, where the performers are so earnest you end up wishing for a cappellas.

Columbus, whose career was built on commercial pap such as "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," does not shy away from the story's dark corners, nor does he fully embrace them. A stirring memorial service captures the pain of losing someone to AIDS, yet elsewhere, the ravages of the disease and the agony of narcotics withdrawal are glossed over in Columbus' typical lightweight fashion.

During New Year's revels late in the film, Joanne uncorks a bottle of champagne, looking braced for an eruption of bubbly, only to find it burble out in a feeble fizz. That sums up the movie version of "Rent": High hopes, flat results.

"Rent" is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving drugs and sexuality and for some strong language. Running time: 135 minutes.