THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

This is a four-star movie for viewers who enjoy musical theater. It is sumptuous, visually bold, and filled with gorgeous, haunting melodies. The spectacle, acting, singing, dramatic motifs, and music come together beautifully, especially in the inspirational ending.

The film also preserves and expands the Christian allegory of the original musical. Its deepest movement is toward grace, sacrifice, forgiveness, and redemption. That gives the melodrama more substance than its heightened style may initially suggest.

The content calls for discernment rather than a blanket family recommendation. Younger children may be frightened by some images and sounds, while older children from media-wise families should be fine. For teenagers, adults, and families comfortable with the listed concerns, this is worth seeing.

Beneath a Paris opera house lives a disfigured, angry man known as the Phantom. He terrorizes the cast and crew so that Christine, a young woman he has taught, can sing the lead role.

When Christine’s singing brings the attention of Raoul, the opera’s new patron and a rich young nobleman, the Phantom’s love for her turns jealous. As Christine and Raoul grow closer, the Phantom’s attacks become bolder, and Christine must decide whom she can trust.

Four stars means this is an exceptionally successful adaptation. The late-nineteenth-century sets and costumes are spectacular, the visuals succeed boldly, and the famous music remains beautiful and inspirational.

The performers act and sing excellently, with Emmy Rossum standing out as Christine. They may not equal the original English Broadway cast, and some viewers may find the cast too young or inexperienced, but the work retains the source material’s bravado, depth, spectacle, and gorgeous musical motifs.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s dialogue and music are expertly woven together from beginning to end. Joel Schumacher adds visual motifs of his own, and the dramatic, visual, and musical elements come together powerfully in the climax.

The film presents a strong Christian allegory about grace, sacrifice, forgiveness, and redemption. Christine becomes a symbolic Christian character whose compassion, sympathy, kindness, and willingness to sacrifice herself confront the Phantom’s inner evil. Her undeserved love leads him to relent, suggesting that grace can end the darkness within a person.

The movie also adds positive Christian imagery. Christine seeks refuge in the opera house chapel, where a stained-glass window appears to show a monk holding a cross while preaching the Gospel of Christ. Images of a rose and snow suggest the flesh and blood of Christ and become symbols of the Phantom’s redemption. At the story’s climax, Christine makes an important plea to God, though the moral meaning is not perfectly stated because of possible romantic and antinomian elements.

The film’s central longing is for redemption through undeserved love. Scripture says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

This is sumptuous, melodic filmmaking with real dramatic depth and a redemptive Christian heart. Its brief violence and other concerns call for discernment, especially with younger children, but teenagers and adults who appreciate musical theater should find much to admire. WORTH THE TRIP — TEENS AND ADULTS