Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the 1996 Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La bohème. The film, which features six of the original Broadway cast members reprising their roles, depicts the lives of several bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, drugs, paying their rent, and life under the shadow of AIDS in the gritty East Village of New York City from 1989 to 1990. Plot On Christmas Eve 1989, aspiring filmmaker Mark Cohen, and his roommate, Roger Davis, learn that the rent previously waived by their old friend and now landlord, Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III, is due ("Rent"). Their former roommate Tom Collins shows up and gets mugged. Mark and Roger meet with Benny, who tells them he plans to evict the homeless from the nearby lot and build a cyber studio ("You'll See"). He offers them free rent if they get Maureen, Mark's ex-girlfriend, to cancel her protest against his plans, but they refuse. A street drummer, Angel, finds Collins and they bond since they are both HIV positive. Roger, who is HIV-positive and a former drug addict, tries to compose his one last great song ("One Song Glory"). He's visited by his downstairs neighbor, Mimi, an erotic dancer and heroin addict who tries to convince him to do heroin together despite her own HIV+ status ("Light My Candle"). On Christmas Day, Mark and Roger are visited by Collins and Angel, now in full drag, bearing gifts ("Today 4 U"). They invite Mark and Roger to attend Life Support, an AIDS support group. Roger turns them down, while Mark goes to fix Maureen's sound equipment. He runs into Joanne, Maureen's new girlfriend, who bonds with him as they discuss Maureen's promiscuity ("Tango: Maureen"). Mark arrives at the Life Support meeting ("Life Support"). He films the meeting for the documentary that he's making about people living with HIV/AIDS. Mimi visits Roger ("Out Tonight"). Roger, whose ex-girlfriend died by suicide after discovering she (and Roger) were HIV positive, rebukes her advances and throws her out ("Another Day"). The next day, he joins Mark, Collins and Angel at a Life Support meeting ("Will I?"). Leaving the meeting, the group imagines what it would be like to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico ("Santa Fe"). Roger and Mark leave to help Maureen set