Posted by MaeveEnRoute on Sun, 01/02/2005 - 11:54pm.
... but having never seen the play, I *loved* the movie. Yes, I've heard the soundtrack of the play, and no, Gerard Butler is not Michael Crawford. I actually appreciated his gruff, socially maladjusted Phantom more than I would have appreciated a suave, seductive Phantom. Because, frankly, the guy grew up in cages and basements and sewers... so while Butler often barks his songs instead of singing them, it all winds up soundong right to me.
Emmy Rossum, also, is lovely as Christine - Sarah Brightman is nice, but she was never a 17-year-old ingenue, probably not even when she was 17, and the purity of Rossum's voice and the range of her facial expression make what could have been an irritatingly wimpy heroine (cf. Cosette in Les Miz) into a believably torn, sympathetic character.
And I didn't find the lavishness goofy at all ... but then again, I liked Moulin Rouge too, so my sense of lavish is probably a little numbed. ;c)
Emmy Rossum, also, is lovely as Christine - Sarah Brightman is nice, but she was never a 17-year-old ingenue, probably not even when she was 17, and the purity of Rossum's voice and the range of her facial expression make what could have been an irritatingly wimpy heroine (cf. Cosette in Les Miz) into a believably torn, sympathetic character.
And I didn't find the lavishness goofy at all ... but then again, I liked Moulin Rouge too, so my sense of lavish is probably a little numbed. ;c)
FWIW, from a non-phan...