This big-screen take on Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit stage musical is a case of too much operetta and not enough Phantom. Director Joel Schumacher's film is sumptuous to look at and lavishly produced, but occasionally suffers from being too faithful, and therefore too flat, an adaptation. An over-familiarity with the story (disfigured sewer dweller falls for ingénue diva), songs (the title number and The Music of the Night) and visual clichés (creepy catacombs, a falling chandelier) don't help. Nor do the colourless leads - Emmy Rossum as bland soprano Christine and Gerard Butler's conventional Phantom. Michael Crawford, the musical's original West End star, would have been far superior. At least Minnie Driver has a laugh as demanding Italian prima donna Carlotta. Yet, despite the lumbering dance routines and deference to the source text, the power and theatrical romance of the show often shines thrillingly through.

A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.