The Phantom of the Opera (2004): Only A Ghost of its Former (and Future?) Self
Written: Jan 20 '05 (Updated Jan 23 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sights.
Cons: Something's missing.
The Bottom Line: The movie is curiously ambiguous and disconnected, although visually stunning and filled with fine efforts by the actors.
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| Ed.Williamson's Full Review: The Phantom of the Opera (2004) |
“The Phantom Of The Opera (2004)” is sure to delight and entertain many people, but though the myth has been revised to delight them, the original myth is an unforgettable reminder to others of things far more interesting and subtle.
This is the age for making all the monsters seem sympathetic, and making all the human leaders seem monstrous. Space monsters were made cuddly in ET a few years ago. The TV show The Munsters turned Frankenstein into the kindly idiot next door. There have been others like this. And in today's world we have The Phantom of The Opera transformed from a hideous beast into Mr. Cutemask.
No, it isn't all the movie's fault; The Musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber did most of the transformation of the Phantom from a loathsome ogre into a misunderstood but slightly disfigured stud. And now the movie from Joel Schumacher goes the musical one better and glamorizes The Phantom so much more than the musical in that he has the charisma of a rock star and the brain of James Bond. He's the real estrogen inflamer in this flick; Christine's beau Raoul is just a trophy date by comparison.
The core story of The Phantom has a horror of a man playing the tortured soul who longed to be free with his lover, Christine. He is pitiable in his ugliness, his naivete', and his savagery. But here we don't pity Gerald Butler's Phantom, at least for anything more than the lines he is given to deliver. With what he is given to work with, again, like Emmy Rossum, he does a decent job.
The movie, it would seem, is designed to appeal most to persons of the female persuasion. The myth of the Phantom touches at least three archetypal nerves in many women. First, he's what Carl Jung called an animus, the dominating male presence a woman might want to forget but who takes up persistent residence in her mind and fantasies. Second, we see here the "Beauty and the Beast" myth-theme replayed- what a challenge to tame the savage beast. And lastly, he's the "Outlaw" fantasy to whom many women are attracted simply because he represents scofflaw freedom. The Phantom is like a rock star, an outlaw country music star, and a NASCAR driver all rolled into one, and many women swoon at the thought of his wild and free demeanor.
And in the movie he is even made beautiful.
And a lot of people are going to like that.
The problem is, this movie's Phantom may be wild, free, an outlaw, and beautiful, but he lacks one essential ingredient. Passion. Despite the script, he is really a pretty cold fish. Mr. Passion he is not. And passion is what is supposed to be at the heart of this tale. But I don't see Christine really losing it over this guy. Even so, he is supposed to be passionate and so a lot of people are going to give him a pass on passion, and say he is anyway, the script notwithstanding.
This is not all the fault of the actors or the director. They are simply laboring under the weight of an interpretation of an interpretation of an original story, and so the script they got is like a thin soup that has sat out in the rain; it may look good to the eye but its taste is strangely lacking.
So what compensates for the awkward script- the music? Well, sure, a lot of people love this music, and I always have and will have a soft spot for that ethereal musical twist ending to The Music Of The Night where the notes sound like they are turning backwards upon themselves. Yet even so, can you remember one song from this musical besides that one? Everything else seems like an incomplete extension of The Music. So in the end the music probably isn't a whole lot of help.
What then of the visuals- the costumes, the dances, the color, the set design, etc. All of that is very well done, although I must admit that going down into the cellars below the opera house looked to me more like exploring the lower floors at a swank Hilton Hotel than that of a dank, dungeon-like Phantom's lair.
But can star power help it? Emmy Rossum's "Christine" stands out in the cast and carries the whole show to the heights it may reach. She has a great voice, great looks, and seems to have tried to make the very best of a less than perfect situation. In short, she's a trouper, and a very beautiful one at that. She is a part of the Good Looks of this stunningly visually beautiful film, and that is an asset in a movie that needed a lot of assets to counterbalance its liabilities.
I may be the only one in the universe who feels this way, and it may be a part of the "interpretation of an interpretation thing," but I had a LOT of trouble following the plot progression in this movie. I was even confused by who the characters were supposed to be in the end- especially two of the women who were supposed to have "aged." I hope that this is not one of those "We're not going to tell you who the people are, because everyone is supposed to be familiar with the story before they see the movie" movies. I hate it when that happens.
This should have been a 5-star movie. I know there are bazillions of people who love the musical of The Phantom, and my review will sound like heresy to them, but I suppose I was looking for something better. Something not only terrifically visually beautiful, but filled with thunderclaps of passion. Hollywood is often good at that, but here there seems to be only a wispy zephyr of that spirituality and fire and sensuality.
So even though this is a good effort, I think the best movie of this story has yet to be filmed. Even so, given the timeless nature of the tale, it may again be re-made in a few years, say in 2025 or so, and the remake will be the truly memorable one.
-ed
Three Stars/***
Recommended:
Yes
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Ed.Williamson
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Member: Ed Williamson
Location: Way Out West, USA
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Fight 'em till Hell freezes over, then fight 'em on the ice!
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