Powerful

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

As Good As It Gets

The acting in this movie is really good.

I loved the Uma Thurman version. I am also a fan of the stars of this film. I was just not overjoyed to see them all together. Many of the songs worked magnificently. There was a lot of song dialouge that didn't work as well. I felt this should have been a musical rather than an opera. I was surprised at how well the actors could hold their notes, like a professional, yet not sound as well on simpler tunes. There are also professional singers who can act (not 50 Cent). Personally I would have cast them.How is it all these Frenchmen have British accents? The music enhances the already rolling coaster ride of emotion of the saga, making the highs higher and lows lower. There has been almost a void of decent musicals in the motion picture industry since the 1960's. This one fills the void with a great story and cinematography. You are hooked on the film by a brilliant opening scene with Jackman surprising the bejesus out of me with his singing and Crowe does not.As a musical, I won't rush out and buy the sound track. Looks good on the big screen. But seriously, 5 stars? Perhaps the most amazing thing is that Russell Crowe, who can't carry a tune in a bucket, got a major starring role in a musical. Don't look for that to happen again.Parental Guide: No f-bombs or nudity. Brief sex scene.

Let's face it, I'm a big Hugh Jackman fan, and due to the media and critics referring to the film as "sensational", I eagerly anticipated watching the film. Boy, was I disappointed. The film is no doubt visually stunning, and from that perspective a masterpiece, actually. The plot, however, left very little to be desired. No one in this film seem to recognize anyone, and everyone seem to die for no apparent reason, and they have a little boy lead a revolution!! The young lovers in the form of Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried becomes inseparable after having just met. Nothing about this film is convincing, not even the singing (which, quite frankly, became way too much for me to swallow). Russell Crowe is completely miscast and his character also dies in the most pathetic way. I mean, seriously?!

I do love the story and have watched most of the filmed versions that have appeared over the years with the Gerard Depardieu version being my own favourite. Financially this film has been a great success, I just wish they had worked harder to make the most of what a cinematic version might offer and it could have been another Oliver or West Side Story, but sadly it's not. So few musicals appear to work to fully utilise the medium of film and this one fails on many counts. 1. if your actors can't sing, don't force them to perfom long and avoidable solos! Poor Hugh Jackman did his best, but even an actor of his calibre can't compensate for such a long and unflattering spotlight. 2.Intersperse the songs with other stuff! 10 minutes of action does not mean the next 40 minuites can be overlooked. 3.Give people rousing choruses that they can sing along to. This film almost managed it, but felt the need to change track every time it got close. 4.You don't need to get your actors to sing every single bit of dialog. I think someone cottoned on to this about 3/4 of the way through, but then thought better of it. As it stands, this version is about an hour too long. i just hope its scale doesn't put anyone off from making another musical version some time in the future as it could be so much better than this.

I didn't like this at all. This is coming from someone that loves the musical with all my heart. The acting in this movie is great but they changed way to much. This is the same reason I didn't like The Shining they added to much and they took out to much.