The thing about Christine and the Phantom - he represents her father in many ways. Also, she is mesmerized by his soul. His musicality. Not his looks. She sees past all of that and finds him to be far more attractive on the inside - then he becomes jealous and his soul becomes as ugly as his outward appearance. So you have the dichotomy of having strapping, gorgeous Raoul (who should have fired his wig person, if you ask me), who is rich and suave and caring and painfully boring versus the dangerous, passionate guy with the deformed face. Let's face it - most of us are at least attracted to the bad boys/girls, even if we never actually pursue them.
The romance of the whole thing is who does she choose - the man who is handsome and attentive but boring, or the ugly guy who lights a spark in her soul? The story certainly gives hope to those of us who are less than god-like in the looks department.
If you ask me, they didn't make Gerard Butler nearly ugly enough - his eyes and mouth would have been enough for anyone to fall for. He's pretty darn sexy - even underneath the makeup.
Emmy Rossum, beautiful as she is, just wasn't old enough to play the part, IMHO. She also didn't have the voice that I thought she needed to basically overthrow the prima donna of a major opera house. I thought the movie was beautifully shot and the costumes and sets were GORGEOUS, as were the orchestrations, but the singing was lacklustre and disappointing.
I will say, however, the Special Edition DVD is worth getting just for the Broadway behind-the-scenes stuff.
