In our first feature article, we expressed our immense relief that Antonio Banderas and Minnie Driver were not cast in the roles of The Phantom and Christine Daae respectively in The Phantom Of The Opera movie. Seven months later and having watched the final version of the movie with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum as the two leads, it is disheartening that given the wide array of talent in musical theater or even in the music industry, the producers decided to cast the two important lead roles based more on the actors' recent emergence in high-profile Hollywood blockbusters than on whether they were vocally the best choices for the roles (which should always be a top priority in any musical movie).

Plot

Plot-wise, the movie remains mostly similar to Andrew Lloyd Webber's original stage production which means that it is still quite different from the original book written by Gaston Leroux. Deranged and disfigured masked phantom (Gerard Butler) haunts the Paris Opera House. He is smitten by the young soprano Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) who thinks that The Phantom is "The Angel Of Music" her deceased father sent to look after her. Jealous that Christine still has feelings for her childhood sweetheart, Raoul Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson), The Phantom kidnaps Christine and plans to make her his eternal bride in his hidden underground lair. In this movie adaptation however, this underground lair doesn't seem so secret since even Christine's good friend, Meg Giry (Jennifer Ellison) discovers the two-way mirror entrance and almost managed to sneak in until she was stopped by her mother Madame Giry (Miranda Richardson). In the end, Christine self-sacrificingly kisses The Phantom and chooses to stay with him in order to save Raoul's life which was on the line. Wrecked by the knowledge from her decision that he could never have Christine's love, The Phantom sends both of them away and disappears without a trace.

The general flow of the movie remains the same as the stage production although minor alterations seem to have been made to the movie adaptation. Additional scenes have been included to explain the story in greater detail. Madame Giry explains the history of The Phantom - a boy from a circus act whom she helped to escape from a traveling fair - much more to Raoul in the movie. Joseph Buquet (Kevin McNally) has a bigger role with a song introducing The Phantom. It is also revealed at the end of the movie, when an aged Raoul visits Christine's tombstone, that they did get married and have children. Christine Daae lived a total of sixty-three years, from 1854 to 1917. The famed Chandelier crash now takes place near the end of the movie instead of at the end of Act I as in the staged production.

Music

For the movie, Andrew Lloyd Webber has written quite a number of new instrumental music and these can be heard during the transitions to different scenes. In total, fifteen minutes of new music were composed for the film. Some changes have also taken place to existing pieces: the starting "Prologue" sounds different and has been extended to fit the longer introductory scene; the last notes of Christine's "Think Of Me" is now descending instead of ascending; Christine's "Angel Of Music" with Meg has been extended so that she can speak a little more about The Phantom; a line from "Masquerade" referring to "a new chandelier" has been altered to "friends that are here" in view of the change in the placement of the chandelier scene; and The Phantom now sings a short reprise of "All I Ask Of You" after "The Point Of No Return". More disappointingly (and perhaps even shockingly) would be how many previously sung parts are now spoken. The line "I give you my love blindly" is now spoken in "Down Once More / Track Down This Murderer". Christine also speaks "Her father promised her that she would send her the angel of music" in "Wishing You Were Somehow Hear Again" rather than sing this simple single-note line. Raoul's first part of "Little Lotte" is now spoken, perhaps to make the lines clearer to audiences. More confounding though would be how most of Raoul and Christine's parts in "Masquerade" about their secret engagement is now spoken and not sung. In any musical, seeing characters break out into song is quite acceptable. Hearing characters half speak and half sing their sentences in rhyme isn't normal. 

Having previously hoped that the graveyard scene would include the full version of "Wondering Child... /Bravo Monsieur..." with The Phantom, Christine and Raoul singing together, this part, as in the Broadway production of the musical, has been truncated. London's West End production at Her Majesty's Theatre remains one of the few places where this scene remains intact. Those who enjoy the group pieces in The Phantom Of The Opera will be happy to note that "Down Once More / Track Down This Murderer" and "Notes / Prima Donna" provide two high points in the movie, although I have some suspicions that many characters' singing parts in "Prima Donna" have been removed such that only one singing voice (and lyrics) can be heard most of the time to make it easier for movie-goers to capture what is being sung. This can only be confirmed when I hear the songs in the movie soundtrack.

The Phantom (Gerard Butler)

Gerard Butler is a very bad choice as The Phantom. He portrays The Phantom as an intensely insane individual and glosses over the frail parts of the stage Phantom that ultimately make him humane and somewhat relatable to audiences. While many people have cried at the emotional intensity of the finale in the stage production, I doubt anyone will be reaching for their handkerchiefs at the end of this movie.

If Gerard Butler took part in the new season of American Idol disguised as the deformed and hideous Phantom Of The Opera, Simon Cowell would be too busy criticizing his singing ability to notice his image problems. At best, Butler's voice sounds ordinary - the sort that you would hear at any karaoke bar - and not something that you would normally associate with a $60 million movie musical. His singing mediocrity becomes apparent when he is forced to speak notes he cannot reach - "You alone can make my soul take flight". Sung lines which end up sounding like "Be Hind The Mask" and "See Cret Lee" add to the cringe-worthy effect. It is not surprising then when he speaks some of his sung parts like "Come we must return. Those two fools who run my theater will be missing you". While I had previously speculated that the director had changed some sung parts to spoken parts so as to enable audiences to understand the lines more easily, in Butler's case, it may very well be that his originally sung lines may not have made the cut or that he had difficulty handling those parts.

It is also difficult to believe that it took Gerard Butler nine hours to be fitted with the full makeup and prosthetics. The Phantom hardly looks monstrous. At worst, he looks ugly, but definitely not deformed and hideous. Also, his deformity doesn't include the entire left portion of his face as in other adaptations since he is able to use two masks (one covering the left side of his face and the other covering the top, middle half including his eyes à la Zorro).

Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum)

The high registers of Emmy Rossum's soprano voice sounds very unclear and the sound at times it even blends in like an additional instrument from the orchestra. Rossum doesn't do much to really impress as Christine Daae and there may actually be a vocal reason why the last notes of "Think Of Me" descend in a simple manner rather than ascend. Keira Knightley, Charlotte Church, Anne Hathaway and Katie Holmes were all at one point or another mooted as Christine and with the exception of Church, Rossum probably sings better than all the others. In the movie, she does does a fine job in "The Point Of No Return".

For someone who was only 16 years old when the movie started filming, Emmy Rossum is a very good actress. Her eyes glitter with tears as she speaks of her palpable fear and confusion about the Angel of Music and for a moment, her emotion actually appears tangible. Acting-wise, her mature performance gives no indication of her tender age and this may be a key reason why she won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and  National Board of Review for Best Young Actress and Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress. She was also nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy in the Golden Globe Awards and Golden Satellite Awards.

Raoul Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson)

The Raoul in this movie version has suddenly transformed into a sword-brandishing, horse-riding hero which makes the final scene where he is so easily tied up and trapped by The Phantom so much more unbelievable. Also, Raoul's long, shoulder-length hair looks more strange than sophisticated. Patrick Wilson was the first of the lead actors to be signed for this project and it is not difficult to see why. His Raoul sings a gentle and clear tenor where every word can be easily heard and understood -- perfect for any movie audience which may not be attuned to hearing characters sing their lines.

Other Characters

Minnie Driver's official resumé describes her as a skilled singer but the singing voice of her character, the Italian soprano Carlotta, was dubbed by Margaret Preece, a singing teacher from Solihull in the United Kingdom, because Driver did not have the necessary background in opera. Preece does an excellent job with the songs and her voice is very clear, a perfect example of how sung opera doesn't have to be obfuscated and difficult to understand. Driver does sing the new end title song -- "Learn To Be Lonely", although it still beckons the question as to why she was cast as Carlotta in the first place. She has a very peculiar Italian accent and although she does a reasonably passable job as Carlotta, it is far from extraordinary or inspiring. Most other actresses could have done just as well. The most difficult part of playing Carlotta would probably be the numerous (and difficult) songs that she has to sing and since Carlotta's singing voice is dubbed, the producers should have just concentrated on finding a strong comic actress with a sizeable fan base (if they had indeed cast Minnie Driver on the strength of her pulling power). Surely Minnie Driver's name can't be topping this list.

Jennifer Ellison looks stunningly gorgeous as Meg Giry. Seeing her act and sing on the big screen, it becomes obvious why she was voted "Sexiest Blonde" by UK readers of Nuts Magazine in 2004.

Staging

The movie employs the use of flashbacks (or rather, "flash-forwards" since the main movie is set many years before these "flash-forwards") to narrate certain events that occur in the future such as Raoul buying the toy monkey with the cymbals at an auction. In the stage production, only the auction scene is played out at the beginning but in the movie, such "flash-forwards" occur throughout the show. The producers probably hoped that these "flash-forwards" would help to explain the story in greater detail but personally, they just seem disruptive since they appear so abruptly and so out-of-sync with what was previously happening on screen.

The additional swordfight between The Phantom and Raoul at the graveyard is also totally unnecessary. Raoul comes from the upper-class, is the Vicomte de Chagny and there is already a mutual childhood love between him and Christine. He doesn't need to demonstrate to Christine that he is a swashbuckling hero in addition to all his other credentials. His swordfight also changes some of the dynamics in the story. Previously, an entranced Christine had to be pulled away from the graveyard by Raoul. Now, she literally rides away on a horse with her triumphant and victorious hero, Raoul. The Phantom sitting on the snow-covered ground in agonizing defeat is a pathetic sight to behold and he loses a large part of his sense of secrecy and invincibility.

In the finale, The Phantom's disappearance at the end of the stage version is so much more dramatic than in the movie version. In it, he covers himself with a sheet of cloth as he sits on his chair and when Madame Giry arrives to remove the cloth, The Phantom is gone. In the screen version, Meg Giry just runs around The Phantom's lair aimlessly before the final realization that The Phantom has vanished.

There are some nice touches in the way the movie is staged though. Snow seems to be an integral part of two key scenes -- the love duet of "All I Ask Of You" on the rooftop of the Opera House and the graveyard scene for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". The misty graveyard and withered, snow-covered trees all add to the visual effect for the scenes.

Some small gestures, which would not have been noticed if done in the stage production, are used here to dramatic effect: The Phantom crushes a rose he gave to Christine after she leaves with Raoul and the rose petals flutter haphazardly to the ground, a distant reminder of the formerly beautiful rose.

Sets, Props and Costumes

The lighting, sets and costumes in the movie are excellent but this is expected for a movie musical production with such a large budget. Carlotta, in particular, has many lavish costumes and the glittering confetti that falls from the ceiling in the Masquerade scene is visually stunning. Also, the chandelier (which weighs 2.2 tons, costs $1.3 million and was provided by Swarovshi) crashes to the ground in a spectacular mess of sharps and crystals in the final scene.

The costume that doesn't work would be The Phantom's "Zorro" mask in his staged Don Juan Opera which just looks out of place compared with the rest of the lavish costumes. Interestingly enough, The Phantom's staged Don Juan Opera that induces cringes among the audiences in the movie actually looks so much like it could have come from the "Wrestle With The Devil" scene in one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's other less successful musicals -- Whistle Down The Wind. Also, the doll set which The Phantom keeps with dolls resembling the individuals in the Paris Opera House is laughably silly.

In Gaston Leroux's original book of The Phantom Of The Opera, he describes during the Masquerade scene that "there was a group crowding around a man whose costume and bizarre, macabre appearance were creating a sensation. He was dressed in scarlet, with a big plumed hat on a seath's-head... He dragged behind him an immense red velvet cloak that spread across the floor like a sheet of fire." In the staged production, The Phantom, dressed as "Red Death", looked impressive, imposing and intimidating (top left photo) and was very close to Leroux's orginal description. The same cannot be said about The Phantom's Red Death costume in the movie's Masquerade scene (top right photo) which servers as a pale imitation of its original stage glory.

Final Words

It is exhilarating to finally see The Phantom Of The Opera's transition to the big screen although it is disappointing to know how much better the movie adaptation could have been with some tweaks with the cast list. In all, this movie does serve an important role in reaching out to movie-goers who have not seen the stage musical or who are not familiar with the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber and its longevity at the U.S. box office (5 weeks in the Top 10 movies listings) for a movie musical is testament to this purpose. Movie-goers who enjoyed the movie adaptation of "The World's Biggest Musical!" (as the tagline for the movie goes) should definitely try to catch a stage production of the musical and draw comparisons for themselves. Hopefully, a recording of the stage musical will be in the works in the near future. It may not reach out to as many people as this star-studded "Hollywood" version, but it sure would make many avid musical theater fans very happy.

Reviewed on 5 February 2004