@yuna_yEmmy Rossum was 17 when they filmed this, and the mirror scene is the whole reason anyone walks out of Phantom Of The Opera believing a guy in a mask is romance. Ethereal is the word. Whatever else the movie does, that moment does the heavy lifting. The Phantom himself is Gerard Butler, and his voice is gravelly rock-opera, which is why "The Music of the Night" reads as a threat and a seduction in the same breath. Stage purists reportedly hate this version. I have never once let that stop a rewatch. Patrick Wilson is Raoul, and Raoul is soft-spoken, rich, and entitled, and he is technically the hero and functionally the villain. The Phantom composes his own music and runs an empire beneath the opera house. His rival turns up with a sword and a family fortune. Synopsis: a girl hears an angelic voice, and the voice belongs to a deformed musical genius who lives under an opera house. He gets obsessed. The rival is a wealthy young man with a sword. Everyone sings about it for roughly two hours while a chandelier waits its turn. The production design is among the most gorgeous of the decade, and the score still holds up. Then about half the runtime is horse-drawn carriages and formal dinners, which is filler next to the underground scenes. Those scenes are the actual movie, better lit and better everything. This is cited as one of the most rewatched musicals of the century, and I get it. 2004 did not just adapt the stage show. It weaponized it.

@yuna_yEmmy Rossum was 17 when they filmed this, and the mirror scene is the whole reason anyone walks out of Phantom Of The Opera believing a guy in a mask is romance. Ethereal is the word. Whatever else the movie does, that moment does the heavy lifting. The Phantom himself is Gerard Butler, and his voice is gravelly rock-opera, which is why "The Music of the Night" reads as a threat and a seduction in the same breath. Stage purists reportedly hate this version. I have never once let that stop a rewatch. Patrick Wilson is Raoul, and Raoul is soft-spoken, rich, and entitled, and he is technically the hero and functionally the villain. The Phantom composes his own music and runs an empire beneath the opera house. His rival turns up with a sword and a family fortune. Synopsis: a girl hears an angelic voice, and the voice belongs to a deformed musical genius who lives under an opera house. He gets obsessed. The rival is a wealthy young man with a sword. Everyone sings about it for roughly two hours while a chandelier waits its turn. The production design is among the most gorgeous of the decade, and the score still holds up. Then about half the runtime is horse-drawn carriages and formal dinners, which is filler next to the underground scenes. Those scenes are the actual movie, better lit and better everything. This is cited as one of the most rewatched musicals of the century, and I get it. 2004 did not just adapt the stage show. It weaponized it.