Film review: 'The Phantom of the Opera' (Andrew Lloyd Webber version)
And-a one, and-a two, and-a everybody lip-synch!
I kid. The Andrew Lloyd Webber film version of Phantom of the Opera was actually very pleasant. But I've liked the musical since about age 15, and since there was very little variation from the stage version, except in getting to be more lavish, I kind of loved it automatically. Had tears in my eyes half the time just out of sentimentality.
But there were a few points that I did regard as un-perfect. The lip-synching was too obvious sometimes--Christine especially needed to move her face more often. It was as if they wanted the singing to look like conversation. Singing, however, clearly isn't conversation, so come on, folks, go ahead and contort those facial muscles a little! Take a cue from Ewan in Moulin Rouge! But they're not going for realism in this one, to judge from how Christine never got cold when exposing her cleavage in the falling snow, and how no one ever broke a sweat.
Gerard Butler (the Phantom) is pretty hot, which is nice to look at, but being a hot young man is not exactly Phantom-ish. From some angles he looked like a young John Travolta. When that occurred to me, during "All I Ask Of You" on the roof of the opera house, I started snickering because I was picturing him bursting into song with, "Stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool / what will they say / Monday at school?"
The Phantom of the Opera is inherently a dark story, and while it got glittered over in a lot of places here, the darkness did come through in a few cool ways. Had to admire that mist-shrouded graveyard, for one. A corpse dropping into the middle of the ballet, strangled on a noose, for another. And the climax with the 3-way harmony is quite nice--the "Say you love him and my life is over..." bit, with Raoul attractively tied to a gate, knee-deep in water in the Phantom's lake. (The actor playing Raoul was cute too, but the Phantom was cuter. Again, that's probably not right.)
Costumes and sets were gorgeous, of course. When the Phantom leads her down to the lake for the first time, along the elaborate candle-strewn passageways, it looks like an '80s video with one hell of a high budget. Maybe something between The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Strip" by Adam Ant, and one of those Meat Loaf ones. ("I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that!" Do what? Snog the Phantom? Actually, Christine will do that.)
Anyway--a good way to pass 2.3 hours. All in all I recommend. Will give 4 stars on Netflix.
I kid. The Andrew Lloyd Webber film version of Phantom of the Opera was actually very pleasant. But I've liked the musical since about age 15, and since there was very little variation from the stage version, except in getting to be more lavish, I kind of loved it automatically. Had tears in my eyes half the time just out of sentimentality.
But there were a few points that I did regard as un-perfect. The lip-synching was too obvious sometimes--Christine especially needed to move her face more often. It was as if they wanted the singing to look like conversation. Singing, however, clearly isn't conversation, so come on, folks, go ahead and contort those facial muscles a little! Take a cue from Ewan in Moulin Rouge! But they're not going for realism in this one, to judge from how Christine never got cold when exposing her cleavage in the falling snow, and how no one ever broke a sweat.
Gerard Butler (the Phantom) is pretty hot, which is nice to look at, but being a hot young man is not exactly Phantom-ish. From some angles he looked like a young John Travolta. When that occurred to me, during "All I Ask Of You" on the roof of the opera house, I started snickering because I was picturing him bursting into song with, "Stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool / what will they say / Monday at school?"
The Phantom of the Opera is inherently a dark story, and while it got glittered over in a lot of places here, the darkness did come through in a few cool ways. Had to admire that mist-shrouded graveyard, for one. A corpse dropping into the middle of the ballet, strangled on a noose, for another. And the climax with the 3-way harmony is quite nice--the "Say you love him and my life is over..." bit, with Raoul attractively tied to a gate, knee-deep in water in the Phantom's lake. (The actor playing Raoul was cute too, but the Phantom was cuter. Again, that's probably not right.)
Costumes and sets were gorgeous, of course. When the Phantom leads her down to the lake for the first time, along the elaborate candle-strewn passageways, it looks like an '80s video with one hell of a high budget. Maybe something between The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Strip" by Adam Ant, and one of those Meat Loaf ones. ("I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that!" Do what? Snog the Phantom? Actually, Christine will do that.)
Anyway--a good way to pass 2.3 hours. All in all I recommend. Will give 4 stars on Netflix.