The Phantom of The Opera ---- a ghastly Broadway apparition

Title:
The Phantom of the Opera (B-)
PH Release Date:
February 9, 2005
Actors:
Gerard Butler, Emily Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Minnie Driver, Miranda Richardson
Director:
Joel Schumacher
Based on the Novel:
‘Le Fantome De L’ Opera by Gaston Leroux
Screenplay:
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumacher
Editor / Music:
Terry Rawlings / Simon Lee
Design / Photography:
Anthony Pratt / John Mathieson
Producer:
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Studio:
Odyssey Entertainment and Warner Bros.


“No more talk of darkness, Forget these wide-eyed fears. I'm here, nothing can harm you -my words will warm and calm you.”

The second longest running Broadway show, seen by almost 80 million people worldwide is now in the big screen. Everything seems old except the actors…, will it be as much of a hit as the play? I don’t think so….

Set in Paris during the 19th century, a lovely young woman named Christine (Rossum) finds herself in the spotlight after the lead opera singer Carlotta (Driver) walked out from the rehearsal. She’s an instant hit, thanks to her “angel of music” (Butler) who taught her how to sing. But the “angel” ends up falling for her and found himself awfully jealous as the young maiden showed mutual attraction to her childhood sweetheart Raoul (Wilson). He then contrives an elaborate plan through a play to obtain Christine. Will his plan succeed and live happily ever after with her? Or will he perpetually be the phantom of the opera?

Never seen the play but I do know the story…. Never been to Broadway but I know how it works…… Never been so disappointed after watching a musical in my entire life, until today….

Yes, we do not question the genius of Webber and his eclectic imagination… but we do question his ability to write a screenplay, and Schumacher’s ability to direct. The good thing about the movie is that it was faithful to the theatrical burlesque the bad thing, is that it was too faithful to the theatrical burlesque.



From beginning to end, you just get the feel that it’s way too theatrical. Yes, it’s a musical, but that doesn’t mean that everything you have to say is melodic. And the sad thing is that it incessantly uses the same music and just changed the lyrics…. I know I use to say a lot of times that I do get sleepy, but on this one I really fell a sleep for about 2 minutes… the boredom got me…

Webber and Schumacher just didn’t make the right choice of stickin’ up with the old stuff. They should have kept in mind that theatre and film are way too different from one another. There are so many advantages with moviemaking and they fail to capitalize on that. The ending, they made a boring play adaptation. I don’t know whether they were scared to go out of the box or Webber is just way too toffee-nosed that he insisted on doing his version and discarded any attempts on bringing in something new, whether it’s a new song, lines or scenes.

Schumacher’s direction can be best described as stiff. He’s no Luhrman or Marshall. He uses too much close-ups, poor camera movements and rigid storytelling. Yes, the art direction is good, the cinematography.. not so, that’s why I am wondering why it’s nominated for an Oscar. The score is good as well, but I doubt its chance of winning. The editing, well, the connection between scenes were there, however, I do believe better scene choices could have been made.



Gerard Butler as the phantom just didn’t work for me. His acting is so taut, poor expressions and the voice just ain’t that good. There was only one scene where I found him effective, ‘twas during that watching the monkey music box right before Christine bid farewell. Besides that, ‘twas all, how would I say it—appalling. Emily Rossum, such a lovely girl, very young and fresh, needs a lot of work especially in singing and the acting is still kinda stiff. Patrick Wilson, gorgeous in layman’s terms. May need more work, but if his purpose was to please the audience with his looks, he definitely succeeded. These three, I’m afraid, have no charisma or the chemistry to nab your interest. They all just looked like actors from a mediocre staging of the play. So I guess, when they made one aspect of the movie to be all-fresh, they failed miserably.

Minnie Driver is such an irksome actress. I dunno if it’s because of the way she looks, or her chestnut British accent, but it’s all rubbish. I thought her acting in this movie is way to irritating than her in real life. Yes, the character is suppose to be that way but I don’t think she pulled it off. Miranda Richardson, may just be the only one who gave a laudable performance. However, I don’t think it’s good enough for me to consider a saving grace from all this crap.

If you love Broadway musicals and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s works and expecting to see something exactly like it, then you’ll love this movie. This one’s made just for you. If you love film musicals, I say watch it just so you’ll have something to compare with and since it’s the only musical released in 2004. I won’t categorically advice couples to see this movie because it’s not as romantic as you think. They were able to pull off one romantic scene and I believe it’s only because the song is just exquisite, probably Webber’s best. That scene when Christine and Raoul sang All I ask of you. However, after that scene everything’s back unerringly the way they were before--- boring, overstressed and almost nothing like a mere Broadway phantom for over 2 hours.