Phantom of the Opera 2004
I had never seen the musical this movie is based on, or even read the book, or seen the Lon Chaney movie. I knew the basics of a Phantom living under the opera house and had heard pieces of some of the songs, including at a wedding reception where a man and woman singing songs did a horrible 10-minute tribute to the Phantom.
I’m always glad to see Broadway blockbusters made into movies. It is rare I get a chance to go see a live show, let alone in New York or with the original cast. While The Phantom does not have the original cast, it still puts together a strong group of singers, and with a movie you always have a good seat. So I enjoyed seeing this movie and hearing the songs, mostly for the first time. There are some good songs, but there are also plenty of songs where they are just moving the plot along with music and the purpose of the song is more to fill in a gap than provide entertainment. Sometimes it was a welcome relief when the characters would stop singing and just talk.
The movie is told as a flashback set in 1870 from around 1920. The more modern part is filmed in black and white using a technique from Moulin Rouge. The bulk of the story is shown in fantastic color and looks great. The main character, Christine, is presented as a porceline doll with a voice just as pretty. The fact that the actress was about 16 as they filmed her in her corsetted, bodice busting, transluscent costumes was a little discomforting. Her enraptured looks while she is ravished by the songs of the two (older) male leads also invokes squirms.
The opera house itself is a haunted castle of opulence, secret passageways, and candle-filled Paris sewers. At times they take things entirely too far. There is a hallway of gold-painted arms holding candelabras which are obviously real arms stuck through a wall that give way as the Phantom walks through. When he kidnaps Christine he takes her to an awaiting horse that takes her the next 50 feet. I’m not sure the point of that. Still, it’s fun to watch I suppose.
There are at least three great musical scenes in the movie that would make this worth watching even if the rest of the movie fell completely flat. As it is, the material and the movie do an adequate job of connecting the songs and the result is mostly pleasant with only a few parts that drag. I’ll give it a B+.