Her voice became his passion. Her love became his obsession. Her refusal became his rage (The Phantom Of The Opera (DVD))

Member Name: DixieChick101

Product:	The Phantom Of The Opera (DVD)
Date:	08/11/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great preformance from both Rossum and Butler.

Disadvantages: Quite boring in places

I'm a huge fan of musicals, but the Phantom of the Opera was not really one that interested me for a long time. That was until I watched P.S I Love You, and fell completely in love with the gorgeous Gerard Butler. When I heard he was also the Phantom, I asked my friend to borrow her DVD and have now seen it quite a few times.

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The Plot
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The deformed bitter man known only as the Phantom finds himself falling in love wtih the chorus singer Christine, he is currently living in the sewers of the Paris Opera House and brings it upon himself to help teach Christine music. He doesn't like the fact that the opera house are not giving her roles, so haunts the Opera House demanding that she gets given these bigger roles. The Phantom quickly finds himself getting jealous when Christine meets up with her childhood friend Raoul and falls in love. He is not about to let this happen so kidnaps her. Can Raoul save her?
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The Cast
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Gerard Butler- The Phantom
Emmy Rossum- Christine
Patrick Wilson- Raoul
Miranda Richardson- Madame Gray
Minnie Driver- Carlotta

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My Opinion
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I was a late comer to the Phantom of the Opera but now I absolutely love it, yes mainly because I could listen to Gerard Butler all day and watch him, but the film was well acted, well sung and it's just overall a brilliant film.

I did have a few problems with the lyp synching within the film though, I know it's a must when it comes to films, I think you will be able to count on one hand how many times singers have been allowed to sing a song live on within a film, without it being pre-recorded. It barely ever happens, but it's usually covered up brilliantly, however in this film, especially I'm afraid with Butler, who already has this cute little lip thing going, but he doesn't do lyp synching brilliantly at all which is a real shame as he is a brilliant singer.

I think Emmy Rossum did a brilliant job, however I think the person who they originally wanted (Anne Hathaway) would have worked a lot better. Not only is Hathaway a trained soprano, but I think her and Butler would have looked great together, and their voices would have gone together brilliantly as well. She was unable to do it due to her role in Princess Diaries 2 which sucked, she should have put that off in my mind. That's not saying that Rossum didn't do a brilliant job, her voice is stunning and when this film came out she was an unknown and she's built a good career from this movie. I think Butler and Rossum had great chemistry in the movie and their voices sounded very good together, I just could see Hathaway in the role more than Rossum.

Gerard Butler did get a lot of flack for his role within the movie, but I couldn't see anything wrong with it, his voice was gorgeous, and he is a brilliant actor, and of course he is drop dead gorgeous which helped a lot. Patrick Wilson was really good as well, Butler's role outshone his, but he still had great presence on the screen and I really enjoyed listening to his voice and his acting ability was awesome.

It's not the most perfect movie in the world and it's not the best musical that I have ever seen, however it is a very good movie, and the singing is tremendous. It does have a habit of becoming quite boring as it is a little long, but Butler and Rossum keep the movie rolling. I've never seen Phantom of the Opera anywhere else but this so I can't really comment on that, but I know a lot of people are moaning that it's not like the stage version or Butler is not as good as the stage version. I don't really care; it's a completely different thing in my min.

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Final Opinion
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A lovely film, I did love Butler in the role, I think his voice is gorgeous and his acting ability is amazing, and of course he is very very cute. Patrick Wilson is quite easy on the eyes as well. I'm currently listening to a song from the film with Wilson and Rossum (youtube), and I have to say her voice does get quite annoying and I still agree I think that they're previous choice would have worked out a lot better, and their voices would have worked a lot better together.

A great film, if you like musicals and haven't seen this yet, then I would recommend watching it.

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Details
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Rating: 12A
Release Date: December 2004
Runtime: 143 minutes
Price: £4.99 (You can get it a lot cheaper 2nd hand)

(C) 2009 Kirsty

Summary: A great film, enjoyable and some great singing