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# Schumacher’s rendition of ‘Phantom’ falls flat
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/schumachers-rendition-of-phantom-falls-flat/
- Published: 2004-12-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:52:31.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Fans — and they number in the tens of millions — of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running stage phenomenon are likely to revel in filmmaker Joel Schumacher’s highly faithful rendering. I’m not one of them.

This latest cinematic rehash based on the play that is based on the early 20th century novel by Gaston Leroux is one of the more expensive exercises in démodé grandiloquence to come along in years. Schumacher and his team clearly put a great deal of energy into crafting the look of the film which is, like the bloated narrative, awfully ornamented yet woefully unmodulated — everything’s resplendent, from the crown of the Paris Opera House all the way down to the underground lair of the title character. With nothing unsightly in sight to counteract the beauty, the movie is noticeably out of balance. The effect is dizzying. As for the players, 35-year-old Scottish stud Gerard Butler (“Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) is entirely too young and pretty to be playing the Phantom, a fact Oscar-winning make-up artist Jenny Shircore inexplicably fails to cover up. Maybe she thought they were making “The Pissed-off GQ Model of the Opera,” but whatever the rationale, it doesn’t work. What does is young Emmy Rossum (Sean Penn’s daughter in “Mystic River”) as the golden-throated Christine Daae, object of the reclusive masked menace’s desire. So good is Rossum, who is well-trained in classical vocal technique, at belting out Lloyd Webber’s tunes, she almost makes it possible to overlook the manifest hokiness of the lyrics. Almost. Minnie Driver returns from wherever it was she was hiding and turns in a knee-slapping performance as a temperamental diva who speaks a most peculiar Italian dialect. The women are clearly the film’s strength, but not even their muscular performances are enough to lift it very high … of course, millions of Andrew Lloyd Webber fans might beg to differ. (Rated PG-13 for brief violent images. Running time: 143 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 24, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)