When Christine meets up with handsome childhood friend Raoul (Patrick Wilson) and begins her first romance, the Phantom's madness and jealousy grow.

Shielding himself from view in the rafters and making his home in the underground crypt below the theater, the Phantomhis partially deformed face hidden by a half-maskhas been seductively entrancing Christine while giving her singing lessons.

When overblown diva actress Carlotta (Minnie Driver) opts out of the lead role in the theater's latest production, a last minute replacement is found in 16-year-old chorus singer Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum), whose beautiful operatic voice catches the ears of not only the house's new owners, Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Andre (Simon Callow), but also the mythical Phantom (Gerard Butler).

From here, the time period rewinds itself back to the Opera House in all its majestic glory, circa 1870. In 1919 Paris, an elderly man attends an auction taking place at the run-down Opera House, where a newly-refurbished chandelier is being sold alongside a music box in the form of a cymbal-playing stuffed monkeytwo artifacts that hold special significance from his past. Director Joel Schumacher (2003's ' Phone Booth') has accomplished what must have been a daunting undertaking, his 'The Phantom of the Opera' proving to be a tour de force that surpasses 2002's Oscar-winning ' Chicago' in sheer spectacle and potency. In comparison, this filmed versioncertainly the most ambitious to ever find its way to the screenfinds a way to marry its grandiose surroundings with a tale of quietly stunning intimacy. For myself, the theater production was viewed from a distance while visually impressive, it was difficult to grow too attached by anyone or care about their futures, the human element sinking under the weight of its all-consuming technical attributes. From the meticulously designed narrative, to the arresting performances, to the note-perfect singing, to the powerful music arrangement, to the sweeping production design and cinematography, to even the story's cumulative emotional resonance, this haunting love story has been spatially opened up and cinematically invigorated in a way that the limits of the stage are unable to.

Having seen Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical only once, during a lackluster tour in Baltimore, Joel Schumacher's faithful big-screen adaptation of 'The Phantom of the Opera' is superior in its every aspect.

The phantom of the opera 2004 music box