Having not seen the musical before, and only being familiar with some of the well know songs I had no preconceptions, but was eager to see the film being a lover of all things musical. From the black and white opening scene I knew it was going to be visually splendid and from the atmosphere created knew I was in for something dramatic. Then the theatre turned to colour and all was sent spinning back in time and the busy backstage frolics of the cast at the Opera House were bought to life. It was not apparent who the leading lady would be for a while until the chorus girl Christine was encouraged forward to sing replacing the Diva and was transformed from rags to a Cinderella style dress and sang with a pure beautiful voice and made me feel all magical and warm inside especially when she hit that note at the end!! Anyway the film went on and she was re united with her childhood sweetheart who was very charming and although most say wet, I think was very caring and charming (any girl wants prince charming on a white horse) despite what they say :-) There were lots of dream like scenes to follow and the film heightened emotionally all the way to the end, I've heard the song "Wishing you were somehow here again" but never knew its context, but the song and scene merged beautifully together for a very sentimental moment in the film enhanced by the angel statues covered in misty snow and a very Tim Burton moment. The phantom was a mixture of anger/sadness/genius and you could understand why Christine was very weak willed in his presence. I loved it, saw it twice bought the soundtrack and rate it 9 out of 10. Karen (Freddies girlfriend) and he liked it too!
