[MOVIE] Phantom of the Opera
"My dear boy, why don't you give up this French Revolution nonsense and come do my show?"
--Andrew Lloyd Webber to Colm Wilkinson, when Les Miserables was in rehearsals and Phantom was being workshopped (and its lead hadn't been cast).
Once upon a time, Lloyd Webber knew how to cast this show. (Mr. Wilkinson opted to stay with Les Miz as Jean Valjean, but later opened as the Phantom in the original Toronto production, where he played the role for over six years. If you lived in Toronto during that time, you already know that. However, if you're a fan of the musical and haven't heard his performance on the Canadian cast album, you really ought to acquire a copy. Now.) Apparently, however, that time is long gone.
I first saw Phantom of the Opera in eighth grade. Jeff Hyslop and Patti Coheneur, although I may be spelling their names wrong. It was never my favorite musical, but I have a soft spot for it. It was my second significant theatrical experience, and as I now have a theatre degree, I think it's safe to say it was influential. So what can I say about this film version? Not much. But damn, can I rant. (And I'm pretty well-qualified to do so, all things considered.)
I'm trying to categorize here, but there's some spillover . . . bear with me.
Cast: Gerard Butler as the Phantom was . . . really boring. His voice is decent, but he has no charisma, and there's virtually no passion in his performance. Give me Michael Crawford's eerieness or Colm Wilkinson's passion and stage presence, not this wooden, adequately-sung *nothing*. Emmy Rossum's Christine is an improvement, but she's amazingly hit-and-miss. Her singing is lovely, but not very emotional for the most part. There are breakthrough exceptions: her delivery of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" is pretty impressive. And she's expressive . . . when she's not 'singing'. I seriously think that she can either act or lip-synch, but not both at once. And there was just no chemistry at all between her and Butler, which made things painful a lot of the time (except, I should note, they both did a decent performance of "The Point of No Return"). Patrick Wilson was a decent Raoul. I always feel bad for the actor playing Raoul, since there's not much to do but look angsty and soulful (these aren't bad things, but they need some substance).
The other performances were good but not impressive. Victor McGuire gave the best musical performance, IMO; unfortunately, Piangi isn't what you'd call a breakout role.
Music and Book (no, not the novel): Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the second act, I'd just like to say: "Get that AXE out of my HEAD!" During Act I, I was kind of being bemused about how the lines were switching off between versions. (Several songs have completely different verses depending on rewrites, such as "Think of Me" and "Angel of Music".) Mostly they stuck to the version on the original London album, but then there were bits of later versions stuck here and there. Some are on other recordings, some were new to me (so I don't know if they're in use in current productions or if they were written for the film). There were a few small cuts here and there, and I hope those weren't justified by time constraints, since there was apparently time for several brief bits of new and mostly pointless dialogue (the only worthwhile addition in the whole thing was Madame Giry's account of the Phantom's past. I quite liked that).
Some of the cuts were significant--they cut the ENTIRE LAST VERSE from the title number O_O--but hey. Act I was mostly survivable. I was just getting over my cringing from the painfully empty delivery of "I Gave You My Music" (again, I refer you to Colm Wilkinson for an example of singing with actual emotion) . . . and then the chandelier didn't fall. Um . . . ok. From there, Act II was a complete mishmash. The second "Notes" was basically missing (except where bits were reworked into the "Masquerade". I guess they did have to have the Phantom saying *something*, and his actual lines are mostly a reference to the fallen chandelier . . .). "Twisted Every Way" (one of my favorite numbers) was moved completely. "Bravo Monsieur!" was cut entirely, replaced by a stupid sword fight that completely undermined what little power this version of "Wandering Child" (another favorite) might have had . . . and on, and on, and on. I don't even want to know what they were thinking.
Direction: I just want to know whose idea it was to have random swathes of the SCORE performed in SPEAKING VOICES. Not just a line here and there--in one case it's an entire bloody song ("Little Lotte"). And the whole leadup to "Twisted Every Way", and . . . just no. Also, pretty much every trace of Christine's move toward insanity (she never goes completely mad, but the danger *is* meant to be there) is smoothed out. Blah.
Set and Cinematography: Here I can finally say good things. This was an absolutely beautiful film, if a bit *too* faithful to the staging in places (candles rising out of the mist is one thing; actually bringing them up, LIT, from the lake is quite another). The costumes were gorgeous, although I miss the Phantom's original Red Death costume. But overall, really, really good on this front.
Makeup: this gets its own note only due to the Phantom's face. Um . . . he looks like he maybe got burned kinda badly, once. This is *not* supposed to be the film version where he becomes deformed due to having acid thrown in his face. o_o It was ugly, sure, but really not all that bad. And the variety of masks he wore throughout showed most of his face over the course of the movie, so some of the deformation really should've been visible. Just sad. >.< (And here is a good place to note that the Phantom just shouldn't have sideburns. My eyes can't roll far enough for that.)
Movie musicals are bad, my friends. Just . . . such a bad idea. (Yes, there're exceptions, but I'm not in the mood to hear about them right now.)
--Andrew Lloyd Webber to Colm Wilkinson, when Les Miserables was in rehearsals and Phantom was being workshopped (and its lead hadn't been cast).
Once upon a time, Lloyd Webber knew how to cast this show. (Mr. Wilkinson opted to stay with Les Miz as Jean Valjean, but later opened as the Phantom in the original Toronto production, where he played the role for over six years. If you lived in Toronto during that time, you already know that. However, if you're a fan of the musical and haven't heard his performance on the Canadian cast album, you really ought to acquire a copy. Now.) Apparently, however, that time is long gone.
I first saw Phantom of the Opera in eighth grade. Jeff Hyslop and Patti Coheneur, although I may be spelling their names wrong. It was never my favorite musical, but I have a soft spot for it. It was my second significant theatrical experience, and as I now have a theatre degree, I think it's safe to say it was influential. So what can I say about this film version? Not much. But damn, can I rant. (And I'm pretty well-qualified to do so, all things considered.)
I'm trying to categorize here, but there's some spillover . . . bear with me.
Cast: Gerard Butler as the Phantom was . . . really boring. His voice is decent, but he has no charisma, and there's virtually no passion in his performance. Give me Michael Crawford's eerieness or Colm Wilkinson's passion and stage presence, not this wooden, adequately-sung *nothing*. Emmy Rossum's Christine is an improvement, but she's amazingly hit-and-miss. Her singing is lovely, but not very emotional for the most part. There are breakthrough exceptions: her delivery of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" is pretty impressive. And she's expressive . . . when she's not 'singing'. I seriously think that she can either act or lip-synch, but not both at once. And there was just no chemistry at all between her and Butler, which made things painful a lot of the time (except, I should note, they both did a decent performance of "The Point of No Return"). Patrick Wilson was a decent Raoul. I always feel bad for the actor playing Raoul, since there's not much to do but look angsty and soulful (these aren't bad things, but they need some substance).
The other performances were good but not impressive. Victor McGuire gave the best musical performance, IMO; unfortunately, Piangi isn't what you'd call a breakout role.
Music and Book (no, not the novel): Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the second act, I'd just like to say: "Get that AXE out of my HEAD!" During Act I, I was kind of being bemused about how the lines were switching off between versions. (Several songs have completely different verses depending on rewrites, such as "Think of Me" and "Angel of Music".) Mostly they stuck to the version on the original London album, but then there were bits of later versions stuck here and there. Some are on other recordings, some were new to me (so I don't know if they're in use in current productions or if they were written for the film). There were a few small cuts here and there, and I hope those weren't justified by time constraints, since there was apparently time for several brief bits of new and mostly pointless dialogue (the only worthwhile addition in the whole thing was Madame Giry's account of the Phantom's past. I quite liked that).
Some of the cuts were significant--they cut the ENTIRE LAST VERSE from the title number O_O--but hey. Act I was mostly survivable. I was just getting over my cringing from the painfully empty delivery of "I Gave You My Music" (again, I refer you to Colm Wilkinson for an example of singing with actual emotion) . . . and then the chandelier didn't fall. Um . . . ok. From there, Act II was a complete mishmash. The second "Notes" was basically missing (except where bits were reworked into the "Masquerade". I guess they did have to have the Phantom saying *something*, and his actual lines are mostly a reference to the fallen chandelier . . .). "Twisted Every Way" (one of my favorite numbers) was moved completely. "Bravo Monsieur!" was cut entirely, replaced by a stupid sword fight that completely undermined what little power this version of "Wandering Child" (another favorite) might have had . . . and on, and on, and on. I don't even want to know what they were thinking.
Direction: I just want to know whose idea it was to have random swathes of the SCORE performed in SPEAKING VOICES. Not just a line here and there--in one case it's an entire bloody song ("Little Lotte"). And the whole leadup to "Twisted Every Way", and . . . just no. Also, pretty much every trace of Christine's move toward insanity (she never goes completely mad, but the danger *is* meant to be there) is smoothed out. Blah.
Set and Cinematography: Here I can finally say good things. This was an absolutely beautiful film, if a bit *too* faithful to the staging in places (candles rising out of the mist is one thing; actually bringing them up, LIT, from the lake is quite another). The costumes were gorgeous, although I miss the Phantom's original Red Death costume. But overall, really, really good on this front.
Makeup: this gets its own note only due to the Phantom's face. Um . . . he looks like he maybe got burned kinda badly, once. This is *not* supposed to be the film version where he becomes deformed due to having acid thrown in his face. o_o It was ugly, sure, but really not all that bad. And the variety of masks he wore throughout showed most of his face over the course of the movie, so some of the deformation really should've been visible. Just sad. >.< (And here is a good place to note that the Phantom just shouldn't have sideburns. My eyes can't roll far enough for that.)
Movie musicals are bad, my friends. Just . . . such a bad idea. (Yes, there're exceptions, but I'm not in the mood to hear about them right now.)