Miss – Starring Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, Patrick Wilson, Minnie Driver

A musical genius resides underneath an old opera house and creates unwanted chaos for the entire company of the opera. “The Phantom,” (Butler) has been training his young protege (Christine) in secret for a long time, and now he believes it is her time to be the star of the company. But while he is making sure that Christine (Rossum) is the star, Christine begins to fall in love with Raoul (Wilson). The Phantom becomes jealous of Christine’s new love and will stop at nothing to have her for himself.

I am a person who has seen the stage version and loves this musical/light opera. The problem with the movie was the fact that I kept thinking, that didn’t happen in the musical. This caused me to not appreciate this movie for what it is worth.

This movie was made 10 years too late. In a recent interview with Joel Schumacher, Mr. Schumacher informed the public that he originally planned to make this movie in 1995 and have Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman back as the original Phantom and Christine. This would have been awesome because you cannot top their performances. Unfortunately, this movie was placed on the backburner and by the time they were ready to make the film, Michael Crawford was simply “too old” to play the role.

What I liked about the film: Emmy Rossum as Christine. She has a very nice voice and is very cute. I also liked Emmy in The Day After Tomorrow. I am sure we will see more great things from Emmy and I hope to see her in more films in the future. I also liked Patrick Wilson as Raoul. You may have seen Patrick Wilson in The Alamo or in Angels in America. He gives a solid performance and connects well with Rossum’s Christine. Minnie Driver was surprisingly delightful in the role of The Diva. At first I was nervous in Joel casting someone so well known but her voice is excellent and her acting is on-par with the cast. Costumes and set design were also of note for this film. Very nice job to everyone who made these characters and their surroundings come to life.

What I didn’t like about the film: Plain and simple: The Phantom. I pretty much disliked everything about him but the part I disliked the most was his singing voice. I felt it was too harsh for the Phantom character, and I also felt that he was too rough in his singing, which caused my ears to cringe. I also did not like the recurring opening sequence, and the fact that the movie did not feature (in it’s entire state) my favorite song of the musical ~ Music of the Night. Bottom Line: If you liked the stage version, you most likely will not like the movie. If you did not like the stage version, you most likely will like the movie. If you have not seen the stage version, I would recommend seeing it.

Rated PG-13 for brief violent images.
Musical
Running Time: 2 hours 23 minutes

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