Talk about "The Phantom of the Opera" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
For those of you who have spent your whole live living under a rock and aren't familiar with the story of the Phantom of the Opera, which was originally a show written for the theatre, this is the summarization I've got for you. It takes place in
France in 1870, and tells the tale of a tortured and masked man who spends his life living in an opera house, the "Opera Populaire". He is but a ghost-story to all others who live and perform there until he falls in love with Christine, a beautiful dancer, and quickly becomes obsessed with her. Even when she does not return his affection, but opts instead for that of Raoul, her childhood sweetheart, the Phantom chases after her, forever proclaiming his love. The theatre version of this has proven to be very popular, and I'm surprised that there are any people reading this summarization because of how fairly common the story is.
Review
First off, be warned, if you're not a big fan of singing, this is not the film for you, because the vast majority of the dialect is sung (hence the opera part of it), and when talking does take place, it is always brief. Another warning is that this film is vastly and incredibly long. If you cannot sit through two-and-a-half hours of singing, (like I was having trouble with at the end), this film is not for you.
If you feel that you are appreciative (and brave) enough to sit through the entire film, I think you will be more than pleasantly surprised by the quality of the singing. At first I was slightly frightened by the voice of Carlotta (played by Minnie Driver, but dubbed over by an actual opera singer), but when the other characters opened their mouths and "let their songs take flight", I was graciously rewarded for not walking out after hearing Carlotta, because I would not have been able to sit through two-and-a-half hours of that, and luckily, thanks to the storyline, I didn't have to.
Although the singing was fantastic, the acting, at least on the part of Emmy Rossum, who played Christine, was not phenomenal. As a matter of fact, for the greater part of the film, all she had to do was look pitiful and forlorn, but she did a fairly good job of it. It seems that the film was directed with more focus on the singing aspect of it than the acting, and the acting wasn't horrible, it was just a bit hard to see through all the singing. The air of pity that surrounded the Phantom (played by Gerard Butler) was quite well established, and I would have almost felt sorry for him if he weren't such a psychopath. I didn't find the attempt to be heart-wrenching towards the end to be particularly successful, but the elderly woman sitting behind me was sniffling over it. Otherwise, it was quite good considering that the actors had to be able to sing and dance as well as act. The best acting took place in the brief clips of the “future” (1917) at the beginning and the end, but it was more like musical theatre being performed in front of me than a movie.
The film really captured all aspects of musical theatre, and for that I thoroughly appreciated it. Not only did it portray what happens on stage in front of the audience, but it showed what happens backstage, at rehearsals, in the music pit, and even from the point of the view of the "lighting" crew (because obviously they didn't use electric lights in 1870) and the people making the mechanics of the play happen, and as someone who has performed in theatre, I really respected that.
Another thing I enjoyed about the film was the tasteful use of computer effects. They were not abused like they often are in films, but pleasantly and marvelously utilized to add to the film without taking away any of its quality. The transformations made using computer effects were breathtaking, and, in my opinion, probably the best parts of the movie. The black-and-white old-movie effect of the future really made it easy to differentiate between the two timeframes, and it kept the movie from becoming too confusing.
Conclusion
All in all, I would say that this was a good movie, but I couldn't see it more than once in a great while because I simply haven't the patience to sit through a movie this long. I'm not really a patient person, and towards the end, I was getting antsy with how it was being dragged on. The ending was really conclusive, and I'd say that the beginning and the end were my favorite parts, which doesn't really say much for the middle, though it wasn't bad, just a bit overzealous. If you're a fan of musical theatre, you will probably enjoy this film, but if you're not, go see something else instead. This film gets three out of five stars, because it was really cool at first, but I got bored with it after a while.
