If you have seen the production of Phantom of the Opera, then you have to forgive this ignorant soul's review of the movie. Living in a small town in Arkansas kind of keeps you from seeing such wondrous sights. What I am trying to say I have never seen the musical therefore, all I can do is judge the movie for its own merit. And I simply loved it. It makes me desire to see the theater performance all that much more. While I would agree the singing is not quite as good as what I am now listening too, which is the original cast recordings. Plus my friend says (who has seen the play/musical) the Phantom is too good-looking—which I don’t know about that. Anyways, the movie itself had great acting, fair singing, and the cinematography is gorgeous.

Plot: The movie is a flashback; it begins with the auctioning off of the Opera house in Paris (or least pieces of it). The important piece sold in this beginning bit is a monkey music box, and a chandelier. When the chandelier is brought up to auction the auctioneer begins the story by saying some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera a mystery never fully explained, we are told this is the chandelier that figures in the famous disaster. Then we get the overture for the phantom of the opera and one of my favorite scenes of the film, where the chandelier gets hosted up and the dusty old theater becomes new again—very nice cinematography—it gave me chills. Now back to the story.

There are two new owners of the Opera, and a new patron (Raoul). Seems that there has been weird things going on and the last owner of the Opera house could not take it anymore—so he got out. The new owners are touring the Opera and come into contact with Carlotta (Minnie Driver) the star/diva of the Opera. They ask her to perform one of the pieces that she will be singing the following even at the gala. During the middle of her song—a backdrop falls on her head. The new owners try to convince her it was just an accident, but she says that type of thing has been happening too often and she refuses to sing until they stop the accidents. The owners are in a panic of what to do—they have no lead--when the ballet instructor says wait a moment—Christine Daae can sing it—she has been training. They ask her to sing a bit of the number for the next evening. She does so, and quite well too, and so it is agreed that she will sing the part at the gala. After the performance, stranger things begin to happen. Christine has never seen the man who has been tutoring her; she simply called him her Angel of Music. After the show Raoul remembers Christine from them having grown up together. She is grown up now, beautiful with a beautiful voice—so of course he is interested in dating her. But the Angel of Music is not interested in letting her go—so he spirits her away from her dressing room to his underground canyon. Christine is a bit shocked to find out who her Angel is but after the evening the Angel or Phantom returns Christine to the opera house. Then he begins to make demands on the owners. He requests a money retainer and that Christine sing in that evening’s performance. He also requests that Raoul leave Christine alone. And he threatens that if his demands are not met that something horrible will happen at the Opera. Will the Phantom have his way or will something horrible happen at the Opera, and does Christine want Raoul to leave her alone? Well, you will just have to go to the movie and see.

The cinematography was great, I love that opening scene and the way they started with the black and white and went to color. It was beautiful. The underground cavern was nice. Every scene was richly laid out and done very well. The music was loud when it needed to be and appropriately soft when needed. The music is necessary for this movie, it’s the key to the whole plot—but it didn’t unnecessarily distract from what was going on. I don’t, however think the singing was a good—at least in the Phantom’s part as the original cast that did the musical—although I do think Christine and Carlotta’s part were very comparable to the original cast. (I have been listening to the original cast recordings for the past week.)

So now the acting, Christine was well played by Emmy Rossum—the sweet child who is confused and doesn’t know whether to fear or love the Phantom. She has a good voice, which to me is comparable with the voice of the Christine in the original cast recordings. Emmy does a great job with the facial displays and body language conveying how the character is supposed to feel. Patrick Wilson is Raoul, the rich boy who gets everything and never really knows trouble—until now. He is a typical hero character and I thought Patrick did a good job in it, and he has a decent voice. Gerard Butler is our Phantom, his voice is not as good as the original castings, but neither is he terrible. My friend said he was too pretty, but I disagree—I thought this was fine casting for the Phantom, also my friend said he doesn’t slink around enough—and I disagreed with that as well. Gerard made me believe in the Phantom’s loneliness, pain, obsession and psychoticness. He made me believe in the character, and perhaps sympathize with him as well. I thought Gerard did an excellent job. But the wow for me was Minnie Driver as Carlotta, when I found it was Minnie Driver my reaction was OMG, that’s Minnie Driver? Needless to say she did an astounding job as the Prima Donna of the Opera. She is catty, bossy, demanding and her voice is amazing. She is everything a Prima Donna should be—that was an excellent call casting wise and one I would never have thought of. I also thought Miranda Richardson did an excellent job as Madame Giry, the ballet coordinator. She is quite, but full of knowledge—things the others do not know—when she speaks its always at the right moment. This lady just had the look for it. Very well done indeed. I overall thought the acting and singing very well done.

Overall I liked this movie. It gave me goose bumps and made me cry, and it makes me want to see the musical live, badly. If you like this type of film, then you should definitely see it—and I don’t think that lovers of the musical will be too disappointed. It’s a lush and beautiful film.

Recommended: Yes