When Rossum sings, however, all of those gauze-filtered shots of her nubile beauty become little more than distractions from her voice: sweet, bell-like and pure, as if innocence itself was personified in the 18 year old's diminutive frame.Ĭhristine quickly (and understandably) becomes the talk of the town, and fans of the Opera begin to clamor for more opportunities to hear her in action. Christine is a back-up singer for La Carlotta (Minnie Driver, herself a former Next Big Thing who survives now in richly drawn character roles) who is unceremoniously called into service by the mysterious Phantom (Gerard Butler) to lead the Opera Populaire's latest production. While for her performance Rossum already won an award from the National Board of Review (for Best Breakthrough Performance) and a nomination from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (for Best Actress), little hype can prepare you for the work she does in the film in short, not only does she return the movie musical to artistic heights reached only during the genre's heyday, but she proves that even an unsuspecting chorus girl can end up anchoring an entire production by the time the last note has been sung.Īdmittedly, the fact that Rossum stands out from first sight means relatively little, especially in the context of director Joel Schumacher's affectionate approach to Webber's musical. But after splashing down on movie screens as Jake Gyllenhaal's would-be girlfriend in last summer's disaster epic The Day After Tomorrow, the young actress finally found the role that would combine her abilities and put her on the Hollywood map: Christine, the talented ingenue who would beguile Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. She's a creative force unto herself, a young woman who began her career on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera at the age of seven, and went on to find television and film roles that would highlight not only her preternatural beauty, but her talent as a singer and actor as well. Now, that's no mean feat for a budding starlet, even in a town where overnight success seems to happen on a daily basis but Rossum isn't just some hottie in a micro-mini waiting to be discovered by a well-heeled studio executive.
0 kommentar(er)
