Emmy Rossum

Graveyard.Crow · 03-01-2007, 04:16 PM

In your opinion was Emmy Rossum the right choice for the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera

MollyMac · 03-01-2007, 07:32 PM

She grates on me, BUT, I will say that she did a hell of a job in the role of Christine. Sarah Brightman was too nasal (I love her later work, but...) and is now too old for the part, and I am thrilled thet it didn't go to a pop tart celubetante.

BlackDahlia · 03-01-2007, 07:53 PM

She played it alright, I think. Christine's character is a little air-headed in the stage adaption of Phantom of the Opera (compared to book-Christine) but since it IS based off the stage play, the characters tend to get, well, theatrical. I'm not knocking the movie by any means, mind you...Gerard Butler as the Phantom was HOT. <3

MollyMac · 03-01-2007, 08:01 PM

And see? I don't get that. (OK, he's hot, but...) in the book, Erik was grotesque. Not a stud with a partial sunburn

Encaitare · 03-01-2007, 08:20 PM

Beautiful voice. Awful at lip-synching.

MollyMac · 03-01-2007, 08:24 PM

Who, Minnie Driver?

BlackDahlia · 03-02-2007, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MollyMac

And see? I don't get that. (OK, he's hot, but...) in the book, Erik was grotesque. Not a stud with a partial sunburn

LOL, yeah, I didn't get that either. When Christine whipped off his mask for the first time and she was horrified I was like "Man, what's HER problem?" XD

I do wish that someone would make a true-to-the-book movie with no-nose Erik...he is a much more sympathetic character.
The part in the book where he was telling Christine about wanting to live a normal life and have things that other people take for granted actually made me cry.

Skade · 03-02-2007, 12:30 AM

I thought she was horrible.
She was even worse than Sarah Brightman for having the same deer-caught-in-headlights expression all the way through the film. And the looks she gives the Phantom during the theme song and "Music of the Night" didn't say "I'm hypnotized by his amazing voice", they said "He's so hot", which made me really dislike Christine's character in this version.
She was so obviously attracted to the Phantom for physical reasons that the love story went out of the window in favour of a story about a fickle teenage girl, who can't decide if she wants to be with her childhood sweetheart or a hotter, older guy. Boring.
All this was obviously not really Emmy Rossum's fault, but the director's. Still, at least Gerard Butler managed to come off as a great actor, even though his character was mangled beyond recognition too. And I know that he refused to play along with some of Schumacher's "Let's make it about sex" ideas.

Butler was horribly miscast, but I had the impression that he really tried to do his best with what he had. I didn't get that impression from Emmy Rossum.

Graveyard.Crow · 03-02-2007, 04:55 PM

She defenetly seemed attracted to Gerald more than he was to her, he seemed to look a little still in the parts where they had some kind of physical contact. She however really looked like she enjoyed herself, but can anyone really blame her?

killer_asian_Dax · 03-02-2007, 05:46 PM

Emmy Rossum is cute, but the whole time she looked like devastation had set in and she was 2 seconds from crying. Minnie Driver played the diva Carlotta. (At least I think she was a diva...)

Graveyard.Crow · 03-02-2007, 08:34 PM

I know she did, what I didn't know is that she could sing opera.

killer_asian_Dax · 03-02-2007, 09:51 PM

Ya, she can sing, but she still need tons of training. Personally, I don't think her opera voice was mature enough for the part.

Skade · 03-03-2007, 12:01 AM

Where did you learn that she can sing opera? I've haven't heard about her being in any operas.... (You guys do know, of course, that musical music - which Phantom of the Opera is - is very different from actual opera music, right?)
I knew Rossum supposedly had some operatic voice training when she was a kid, but I really don't see her voice ever maturing into an operatic voice. It was just too frail sounding. Not that I'm an expert on singing by any means.

My problem with her looking like she was so attracted to the Phantom is just that it shatters the story. Take the original story about a young soprano who is captured by a monstrous, abusive, extremely lonely and deeply hurt madman, and who is torn between her love for her childhood sweetheart and her pity for this poor man who loves her so desperately, but whom she could never love in return. Compare this to a story about a young soprano who is torn between a rich good-looking guy she used to know, and her physical attraction to an older, gorgeous guy with a weird inferiority complex. You see my point, right? It makes her character so shallow.
Don't get me wrong though, I own this version of Phantom myself and I do enjoy parts of it and think it's an alright film in its own right. It just isn't really Phantom, and I blame the director and way the characters were portrayed for that.

I didn't even think she looked cute, I thought it was just annoying the way she looked either shocked, close to tears or dazed constantly. And her hair made her look like a sheep. But then, I am a girl

Although Gerard Butler is not really the type I'd be attracted to either.
All this might sound a bit hostile, so maybe I should just add that I don't mind Rossum as a person. Supposedly she lives a very clean lifestyle, which is nice for such a young Hollywood actress. I just don't think she's very good at what she does.

Graveyard.Crow · 03-03-2007, 11:32 AM

Her voice was great for the role, it added inocence and well yes she is young, that doesn't mean that her voice will never mature into an operatic voice. I mean honestly, you think Sarah Brightman always sounded the way she does now? I think not. And she had to have the hair curly like that, it is what she was sepposed to look like.

killer_asian_Dax · 03-03-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skade

And her hair made her look like a sheep.

ROFL!!!!! So true!! So true!! That is the BEST comment EVER!!!!

Skade · 03-03-2007, 12:54 PM

(Laughs) Glad I was able to amuse you, killer_asian_Dax

Graveyard.Crow - You say that her voice added innocence, but combined with the way she behaved around the Phantom, an innocent voice just becomes a bit laughable. I would believe someone was innocent from their actions rather than from the way their voice sounded. And if Schumacher meant for her to be sexy, which I think he did, considering the costumes that were chosen for her and the way he presumably instructed her to look during Music of the Night, an innocent voice wouldn't be in-character anyway.

I don't know what you mean when you say she was SUPPOSED to look like that. Christine in the original story has straight blonde hair. Sarah Brightman just looked like she had wavy hair to me.
In my opinion whoever did *everyone's* hair in that film was either trying to be funny or was completely without taste, though. Raoul's hair looked like a roadkill. (Which is almost worse than a sheep by any standards)
And I believe that someone with a decent voice can mature into a good singer of most *other* genres of music. But not opera. Opera requires a certain amount of natural talent that no amount of practice would achieve. Like I said, I'm no expert, but if someone can barely manage to sing musical music well, I really don't envision an operatic career for them.

Graveyard.Crow · 03-03-2007, 01:34 PM

Emmy Rossum did a great job singing, to sing even like that takes a lot of work and opera IS something you can learn. Over the years you train your pipes to sing stronger and louder, your voice changes to sound lower and more mature, you can train yourself to hit higher notes. Try singing like her, then tell me she wasn't good.

Skade · 03-03-2007, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graveyard.Crow

Emmy Rossum did a great job singing, to sing even like that takes a lot of work and opera IS something you can learn. Over the years you train your pipes to sing stronger and louder, your voice changes to sound lower and more mature, you can train yourself to hit higher notes.

Of course you can train your voice and become a better singer, but you can't change your natural voice so much that anyone can become a good opera singer if there was nothing to suggest that they had that within them to begin with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graveyard.Crow

Try singing like her, then tell me she wasn't good.

Ah - but I'm not a singer, much less am I trying to manage an ambitious singing role in a musical. I'm not going to judge a professional singer by how *I* sound compared to them. The boy cat serenading my girl cat outside sounds good compared to me. I'm going to judge a singer by how good they are compared to other professionals.
When I judge whether Rossum was right for the role, I think of the other Christines I have heard singing in the show, and since this is the version that got made into a film, I would expect her to rival them. And she doesn't. She can barely hit the really high note at the end of the theme song, and her voice is very weak compared to a lot of the other women who played Christine.
I do think Rossum is a decent singer, and I'm sure she will become quite good eventually with more training. I just didn't think she was ready for Phantom and I don't believe she will ever approach being able to sing opera. At least not in any way I would want to listen to. (Thinks of bleating sheep)

Graveyard.Crow · 03-03-2007, 03:03 PM

In fact she struggled with the low notes not the high ones.

Skade · 03-04-2007, 03:19 AM

Well, it's also a fact that she struggled with the high ones. I know she had to sing the theme song a lot of times before she managed to get close to hitting those high notes. If she struggled with the high notes AND the low notes, I think that just supports my argument that she wasn't ready for the role.
Stage actresses don't get multiple chances to try again and again until it sounds right once the show is on, they just have to be able to get it right the first time. Stage actresses also act while singing, and Rossum sang in a studio and lipsynched it during the shooting of the film. That's a lot of advantages, and still she didn't sound as good. I'm not really that fussed about what particular notes it was she couldn't hit - she couldn't sing the songs the way they were meant to be sung, and that's bad enough.

Anyway, this is getting a bit silly, so maybe we should just agree to disagree