The Phantom of the Opera English Movie
This rippling rendering of Andrew Lloyd Webber's timeless musical epic about a disfigured musical prodigy, who secretly grooms a sidelined opera singer into stardom and then demands his pound of flesh from her, is a flash-reminder of the Schumacher's Batman antecedents.
In case anyone has forgotten, Joel Schumacher directed one of the recent Batman films. And Gerard Butler, the phantom of this opera, is every bit like Tim Burton in Batman.
The masked splendour doesn't take too long to peel off, as one legendary musical number after another flows out of Emmy Rosum's crimson lips in this opulent, but finally unproductive opera.
Rosum's Christine is much too honeyed to be hefty.
She sings like an angel, but we needed her character to be more spirited and spunky to suit the needs and demands of present times.
Schumacher recreates 19th century Paris, its gaiety and glamour, but does not succeed in placing a finger on the pulse of the times. Visually, the scenario looks ripe and correct. But this is no "Moulin Rouge".
Trapped in endless orgies of song dance and merry-making, the do lacks the vitality and free-spirited languor of the beau-monde.
There's something vitally dead about this eagerly awaited adaptation.
It isn't as though Rosum doesn't sing Webber with gusto, or that Butler's Phantom is too extravagantly enigmatic to convey the anguish of a man spirituality crushed by his physical deformity.
Even the narrative has everything in place.
But somehow, the gusto and vivacity of the original musical pieces are lost - something like losing the music in pursuit of the rhythm.
Often the musical pieces outrace the drama. While the songs and dances are performed with vibrancy, the spice of life evaporates in pursuit of the right colours and tonal inflexions.
There have been at least five major screen renditions of Webber's play, but none so bland and devoid of sunshine.
The age-old battle between physical ugliness and spiritual beauty is drowned in the din of exaggerated spectacle.
John Mathieson's cinematography, though sumptuous, misses delicacy for the meal. The film is a visual banquet but an emotional and spiritual travesty.
