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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera Stars: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, Ciaran Hinds, Jennifer Ellison,Victor McGuire and Minnie Driver Director: Joel Schumacher Scriptwriters: Joel Schumacher and Andrew Lloyd Webber Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber Warner Brothers Running Time: 140 minutes Rating: PG 13 Website: <http://www.phantomthemovie.com>www.phantomthemovie.com If you aren’t an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, don’t read this review. Go listen to Stephen Sondheim instead. Movie fans who have unabated romance within them can now see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera on the big screen. Michael Crawford sang the Phantom role on Broadway, Antonio Banderas wanted the role for years, but Scot actor, Gerard Butler (Dracula 2000) was the one who got it. Butler has an average singing voice, but makes a sensual, bodice-ripping Phantom straight out of gothic novels.. Joining him, but with a much better voice, is Patrick Wilson as Raoul (The Alamo and the role of Curly in Oklahoma), who wears riding boots, military uniform and sword. Just as the Phantom likes to toss his cape around, Raoul is adept at tossing his braided jacket around, and I can’t forget to mention that both men favor white, ruffled shirts, open to the waist. Then, we come to the woman they fight over, Christine (Emmy Rossum from Mystic River). Rossum has made a career of singing and acting, and appears innocent and in danger, necessary ingredients for a romance. The comic foil to the romantic characters is Carlotta, the Diva (Minnie Driver who now has her own cabaret act). Driver must have had a great deal of fun playing a woman who believes the world revolves around her and gives temper tantrum new meaning. The story of a disfigured man who was rescued from a circus by a kind ballet dancer and spends his life living in the basement of the Paris Opera Populaire is well known. Gaston Leroux’s novel, Le Fantome de L’Opera) has made this writer famous. For those who would like a slightly different interpretation of Leroux’s novel, read Susan Kay’s Phantom (Dell, 1991) The man becomes known as the ghost who haunts the opera, “The Phantom,” and is a teacher to a young singer, Christine. The lead soprano, Carlotta, is selfishness-personified, but through various “accidents,” Christine gets her big chance and becomes the toast of Paris. Enter, Raoul, a childhood friend, who now becomes Christine’s boyfriend, much to the anger of the Phantom who wants Christine all to himself. We are talking stalking and harassment here.What happens to the trio as they fight their way to a resolution through music is one of Broadway’s biggest hits. The sets are indeed lush. “Masquerade” has the actors in black and white costumes until the Phantom makes his appearance in red. Christine visiting her father’s grave in a cemetery is both mysterious and poignant. Almost every scene in Phantom is designed to look like a picture from a Gothic book. Intricacies of the Paris Opera show up nicely as the singers do the word, “labyrinth.” The lair of the Phantom is surreal, and while we don’t hear him play the pipe organ, they are in the scene. The actors may have done their own singing (with the exception of Minnie Driver who is dubbed by Margaret Preece), but there is a microsecond delay between music and facial motions. Nothing is perfect. Gerard Butler looks menacing, dashing, romantic and slightly askew, while Patrick Wilson is dashing, romantic and slightly emotion-less. Emmy Rossum looks slightly undressed, in distress and worried, while Carlotta steals her scenes. Miranda Richardson as Madame Giry the ballet mistress holds her own and is the calm force here. Jennifer Ellison plays her daughter, Meg, Christine’s friend and a young dancer, while Simon Callow and Ciaran Hinds are the new owners of the opera house and not sure how to deal with a phantom in their building. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera met my expectations of bringing this larger-than-life musical to the big screen. One wonders how Antonio Banderas would have played the Phantom, but Gerard Butler does nicely. You will never look at a single, red rose the same way again. Copyright 2004 Marie Asner
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