Those Broadway Chops

Making a movie musical is one thing; making a movie of “The Phantom of the Opera” is another entirely. Andrew Lloyd Webber has been trying to bring his take on the Gaston Leroux story to the screen for 15 years, and I imagine the final result, as directed by Joel Schumacher, is something he and the show’s biggest fans will be quite pleased with. Those who haven’t been to the Majestic Theater in the past decade will still wonder what the fuss could be about.There are many reasons people like to watch movie musicals – star turns, extraordinary performances, clever lyrics, entertaining dance numbers. The recent Academy Award winner “Chicago” had few real belters but plenty of everything else. Though most of its performers seem to have Broadway chops, “Phantom,” on the other hand, doesn’t have much else going for it.While there are several big dance scenes, most are of the atmospheric, caped-figures whirling-around-a-room variety, rather than the showstopper solo type. And though much complaining is done in the area of 42nd Street about the quality of Mr. Lloyd Webber’s score, listening to the work again, I found I preferred it to the inane lyrics by Charles Hart.“Phantom” begins decades after the film’s events have transpired, at an auction in what is now the run-down Paris Opera House. The discussion of “Lot 666”- a destroyed chandelier that was downed, allegedly, by the legendary and mysterious “Phantom of the Opera” makes way for a spectacular time-traveling sequence, back to 1870, when the rest of the film takes place.Scottish actor Gerard Butler has been awarded the title role, much to the chagrin of “Phantom” enthusiasts who were pining for the return of originator Michael Crawford. Mr. Schumacher wisely rejected that idea, surely understanding that an overweight near-senior citizen wooing an 18-year-old might not work so well. For the disfigured musical genius who lives in the bowels of his opera house and tutors the beautiful but naive orphan chorus girl, Christine (Emmy Rossum), also secretly loves her.You have to feel sympathy for Mr. Butler. On the one hand, his character is a passionate genius; on the other, well … he’s ugly. Burdened with the mask (not to mention the script),he has a heck of a time winning the audience’s sympathy in the close-up-driven medium of film. Only in the final 15 minutes, after the Phantom’s face has finally been unmasked and Mr. Butler is allowed to do more than just squint and grimace, does he come into the part.While the attractive Ms. Rossum certainly holds her own, stage veteran Patrick Wilson (most recently of “Angels in America” and “The Alamo”), who plays her suitor, Raoul, is the most impressive – particularly considering this is a bland character with no real attributes other than that he has better social skills than his Phantom nemesis. Mr. Wilson’s voice is exceptional, and no one could be blamed for thinking that if he and Mr. Butler had switched roles, the movie would have been better off.It is difficult not to conclude, however, that the most effective performance is delivered by Minnie Driver – as the opera’s resident diva, Carlotta – who hams it up to humorous effect. Everyone else in this movie seems to take themselves a bit too seriously.Everyone, that is, except Mr. Schumacher, who seem to have done a lot of orchestrating and far too little directing. Mr. Schumacher does not take any of the characters or story seriously enough to contemplate them in any complexity. And while you can’t blame him, the result seems to be that his actors are performing in a dark and gothic film with artistic pretensions, while he is staging a campy spectacle. Given that the film does not stray far from its source material, the latter wins the majority of screen time.***Films featuring the mentally disabled seem abnormally prone to phony, self-congratulatory storytelling. So it was refreshing to watch “The Keys to the House.” Gianni Amelio’s graceful and touching film never panders, nor attempts to be cute, but merely tells its at-times difficult story by being straight and honest.Co-starring Kim Rossi Stuart and Charlotte Rampling, “House” begins with Paolo (Andrea Rossi), a mentally impaired 15-year-old, who is just meeting his father, Gianni (Mr. Stuart), for the first time. Apprehensive at first, Gianni fulfills his inaugurating paternal obligation and delivers Paolo to a rehabilitation clinic in Berlin.As the two grow closer, Gianni meets Nicole (Ms. Rampling), the mother of a severely disabled girl. The two strike up a close friendship, though each hides secrets from the other. Ms. Rampling, in what is a small role, steals the film with her powerful performance, culminating in a lovely, elongated unbroken take, in which she delivers a quiet and devastating monologue detailing the outcome Nicole sometimes wishes on her daughter.Mr. Amelio’s movie is bittersweet and mature, not afraid to deal with complicated issues head-on, and adult enough to conclude that happy endings are what we make of them.

Those Broadway Chops

Those Broadway Chops

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