Rating: PG13
Genre:
Musical
Theatrical Release: 12/22/2004(USA
Release Date: 05/03/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 141 Minutes
Flags: Violence
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
One of the most popular stage
musicals in the history of Broadway and London's West End makes its long-awaited arrival on the motion-picture screen in this lavish adaptation directed by
Joel Schumacher.
Christine (
Emmy Rossum) is a beautiful and gifted young woman who longs to join the company of the Paris Opera House. During rehearsals for one of the opera's grand productions, a backdrop falls and crashes to the floor, nearly crushing leading lady
Carlotta (
Minnie Driver). When several members of the company suggest this could be the work of the "
Phantom of the Opera," a spectral presence said to haunt the building,
Carlotta drops out of the show, and the fates permit
Christine to step in as her replacement.
Christine's performance is a triumph, and on opening night she becomes reacquainted with
Raoul (
Patrick Wilson), a former childhood friend who is now a wealthy and well-known nobleman.
Christine soon finds herself smitten with the handsome
Raoul, but the same evening she makes a startling discovery -- the story of the Phantom is not just a legend. A brilliant but horribly disfigured composer (
Gerard Butler) lives deep in the depths of the opera house, and taken with the beauty of
Christine's voice, he abducts her and brings her to his lair, where he offers to help her perfect her talents, offering to write an
opera especially for her. As the terrified
Christine is comforted by
Raoul, the two fall in love, but the phantom sees her affection for
Raoul as a tremendous betrayal, and the jealous phantom nearly kills
Christine as he nearly killed
Carlotta. When the phantom emerges to present the opera's management with the piece he has written for
Christine, the singer is asked to put her life on the line in an effort to capture the mad genius once and for all.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
musical version of
Gaston Leroux's novel, which had already enjoyed several stage and screen adaptations in the past, opened in London in 1986 and has been a popular favorite around the world ever since; the show was still running in New York and London when the film version premiered in late 2004.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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