The Grinning Man / The Man Who Laughs Book, Movie and Musical Part 2

[@AliciaNyblade]

6:38--"I think there was a 2012 French film version I would love to check out." Oooh, my friend, if you're going to venture there, brace yourself. I saw it and as soon as the film was done, I walked out into my kitchen and grabbed a beer. It was that bad. It did to "The Man Who Laughs" what the Argento film did to "Phantom": It took the bare bones of the story, added a bunch of stuff that wasn't in the book to seem "edgy" and "with it", and strung just enough muscle tissue onto it all for the plot to hobble along to all the so-called sexy parts. It was clearly made for the "Twilight" teenage crowd, people who think watching the latest film version of a classic is the same thing as reading the book. So, yeah, just a friendly word of warning, prepare yourself. Have a strong drink nearby. Or better yet, take a shot every time you have to pause the movie to scream, "WHAT. THE HELL. WAS THAT?!"

[@AliciaNyblade]

(Apologies for the long post. I tried to be as brief as I could, and truth be told, I could talk about "The Man Who Laughs" for hours.) I recently listened to the cast recording and for me, it was a mixed bag. Like you said, some of the music is absolutely amazing and illustrates the characters well. "Labyrinth" and "I am the Freak Show" are my two favorites. But others were way too on-the-nose for my taste and seemed quite childish, like a middle schooler taking their first crack at writing a "serious, adult musical". A troubling trend I've noticed with the recent adaptations of this story--this musical and in the 2012 film--is adding in things that weren't there in the book simply to seem "edgy". Those are my summed-up thoughts, and below, I'm going to go into spoilers. The characterization of Josiana, to start with: In the musical, they write her relationship with Lord David as being an incestuous one and, in the 2012 film, they age her up to make her a cougar in her pursuit of Gwynplaine (and Lord David, or Josiana being engaged, isn't even featured in the movie). Why? Josiana's perfectly creepy as is; she's grown up with every whim satisfied and with her fate planned out since her infancy and those two factors have made her an absolute sociopath. That's all her character needs. People, stop adding things to her as if she isn't twisted enough as Hugo wrote her. And stop implying that Gwynplaine and Josiana have sex. The whole point of that "she almost seduces him" scene is that Josiana DOESN'T bang Gwynplaine's brains out. She finds out his true heritage and that she must therefore marry him instead of Lord David and this revelation makes Josiana lose all interest because Gwynplaine is now no longer "low" to her. And speaking of Gwynplaine, why is it that both this musical and the 2012 film make him an asshole the minute he finds out he's an aristocrat? Seriously, the musical's songs imply that he just forgets about Ursus and Dea--and perhaps is even told they're dead and accepts this without question--to the point where he screws Josiana to let out his grief and happily becomes her lapdog. And in the 2012 film, he brings Ursus and Dea to his manor house and STILL acts like a jerk, leaving them to be tended to by servants because, hey, there's a hot duchess waiting for him. It's like the writers think just because he'd be overwhelmed by such a sudden change of fate, of realizing he's a lord's son and not a clown, that Gwynplaine has to emotionally abandon his loved ones--until the plot calls for him to make his badass speech in the House of Lords, of course. Ugh. As for Gwynplaine's relationship with Dea, I hate how cutesy the musical made it. That "Beauty and the Beast" song was like nails on a chalkboard to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I've never liked a parallel being made between "Beauty and the Beast" and every other story featuring a disfigured protagonist. It's cliche, lazy writing. Secondly, coating Gwynplaine and Dea's relationship with so much sugar that even Disney would probably tell the writers to tone it down seemed to scream the age-old stereotype of, "A blind girl doesn't know what sex is because she's blind!" And as someone who's been visually impaired since birth, I hate that stereotype. It's one of the most common ones brought up in stories that feature characters with disabilities. And, to keep myself from going into a rant, I'll just say this for the umpteenth time: Having a disability does not equal ignorance to what sex is or a lack of libido. Some might argue that Gwynplaine and Dea's relationship being adapted as not having any sort of sensuality to it ties back to the book and the 19th century idea of "'Good girls' in general don't desire sex", but I disagree. For starters, Dea is 16 in the book. Her hormones were probably going crazy. Furthermore, her name, Dea, means "Goddess" in Latin and, with all his literary knowledge from being a philosopher, Ursus definitely would have taught her that goddesses aren't the blushing, chaste figures up in the clouds that Judeo-Christian imaginings have made them out to be. There are actually a lot of esoteric and Pagan themes in the book that often get ignored in a lot of versions. Which is why I emphasized them in my play adaptation. In my script, Ursus, Gwynplaine, and Dea are followers of the nature-revering "old ways" of Celtic paganism, or as much as they could have been for the time without being tried for it, and they understand that the notion of physical love and spiritual love being at odds with each other is complete rubbish. And lastly, in regards to the plot twist of the musical that brought everybody together, I didn't like it. I've never been a fan of connecting characters on a family tree which didn't exist in the original source material. Even for adapting a Victor Hugo story, that seems a bit too coincidental. And making one of the book's good guys into a bad guy--yeah, I flat-out hated that part. So overall, based on the cast recording which is all I have to go off of since I live in California, I'd rate "The Grinning Man" a 6 or 7 out of 10. A good effort, and better than the 2012 film, but certainly not as deep or profound as it could have been.

[@sundus928]

Is that Johnny Depp on thumbnail? Don't know anything about the story or whatever the hell this is but it gives me the early Tim Burton+ Johnny Depp movie vibes.

[@RocketTheSaladBoi]

Is there anyway I can get the whole cast recording! I fell in love with this show and can only get 5 songs! I miss the music so much! I can’t find how to find the cd or download or buy the music! Would really appreciate some help!

[@josephst.george7841]

Can you make a Dropbox link for your new review I can't watch it because of copyright

[@PhantomReviews]

Yes try tinyurl.com/LostPOTO

[@jessicaable5095]

So weird. Did you try posting the first part again a few hours ago, or is my notification bell playing up? Either way, the copyright hellspawn struck again

[@PhantomReviews]

I have had to upload the review to tinyurl.com/LostPOTO

[@tete.depunk]

Huge fan of yours since 2011! Although there's not much in terms of POTO content recently, have you heard of the MazM Phantom of the Opera mobile game that was released this past Spring?

[@brattenhugo5643]

Where did you go phantom reviewer

[@PhantomReviews]

I am lurking, in the shadows, considering the best time to leap out and terrorize once more...

[@AnimeAngel88]

Did part 1 get taken down?

[@PhantomReviews]

Yeah it did, however you can still see it at tinyurl.com/LostPOTO

[@AnimeAngel88]

@@PhantomReviews Thank you.

[@belletoast]

great vid, are you still doing that Phantom PhanPhiction video series?

[@PhantomReviews]

I dont think I'm brave enough to face any more of them... maybe if I find a truly hilarious one.

[@belletoast]

@@PhantomReviews okay thank you for replying. By the way I have a copy of the yeston and kopit musical in English if you want that, not even to necessarily review if you just want to watch it

[@mgc4216]

Bristol Old Vic are showing the Grinning Man for free this month: bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/the-grinning-man Very excited!

[@jessicaable5095]

Did part one get removed?

[@PhantomReviews]

Yeah it did, its so annoying. I need to do a re-edit at some point

[@jessicaable5095]

Well, I look forward to watching this one when you get the chance to do that 😊

[@eristineforever6934]

Please, review more Phantomy goodness. Please. Do you need ideas? Well, I have some. 1. Hotel Transylvania 2 2. The BYU production of ALW’s Phantom of the Opera. 3. The Phantom of the Opera by Peter Hollens 4. The Phantom of the Opera by VoicePlay. 5. Season 9 Episodes 1 and 2 of Night Court. Both episodes are called A Guy Named Phantom. 6. The movie V for Vendetta. 7. Into the Labyrinth Season 3 Episode 5 : Phantom parts 1, 2, and 3.

[@emilygracey]

The 2012 version? Cheers on that one. It just...it sucks. I appreciate the ending being somewhat true, but they just make Gwynplaine a bit of a bastard. Visually, it's gorgeous and quite the treat to look at, but you do get Gerard Butler levels of deformity.

[@AliciaNyblade]

Yes! The 2012 film is absolute shit. They changed so many things from the book for no reason; it wasn't simply a case of adapting a book to film, they just added whatever they thought would make it "edgy". There's so much wrong with it, but the ending. DO NOT get me started on the cheap, roundabout way they tacked on the book's ending when how those events unfolded in the novel were perfectly fine and would have translated beautifully to film and good gods, I hate that movie. It's frustrating with how gorgeous the set and costume designs were, because if they had kept those aesthetics, given the actor who played Gwynplaine a proper makeup job, and adapted the novel more closely, the movie would have been awesome. But no, they just had to appeal to the lowest common denominator, people who think that watching the latest film version of a literary classic is the same thing as reading it.

[@emilygracey]

@@AliciaNyblade When the "send Dea down THAT hallway" scene came on was when I officially checked out. My heart literally ached for that sweet cinnamon roll 😢 For every one right thing done in this film, a dozen or so wrong things are done. On an unrelated note: Holy crap does Marc-Andre Grondin look like Gaspard Ulliel! Of course that was automatically followed up by, "Oh yeah, I should be watching 'A Very Long Engagement' or 'Saint Laurent.' Hell, I'd settle for 'Hannibal Rising' at this point 🤢" the entire run time of the film and that's never a good sign.

[@AliciaNyblade]

@@emilygracey Oh, gods, the hallway scene. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I'm just gonna list four things: Gwynplaine, Josiana, a hallway that has cushions on the walls, and at the other end of said hallway, a bedroom with a mirrored ceiling. Just . . . just let that sink in, fill in the blanks, and enjoy your nightmare fuel for the next week. They made Gwynplaine such a stupid, selfish idiot for the last half hour or so of the movie, as soon as it got to the manor house. It wasn't even in the sense of, "Well, he's in this new place, he's had a new destiny thrust upon him and so he's overwhelmed." No, it was like the writers gave him a lobotomy in order to set the wheels in motion for their crappy version of how the ending happens. Gwynplaine and Dea are my favorite couple in literature and, as I watched this film and they kept building up the sweet, subtly sensual "Will they or won't they?" tension, I honestly had high hopes: "Finally! Will a film give them the beautiful love scene they deserve?" Nope. And just for that, never mind all the other awful things wrong with it, the movie can go sink in the Thames. You can't build something up like that only to give it such a shitty, almost nonexistent payoff. It's the classic "Chekov's gun" rule: If there's a gun introduced, it has to go off at some point. If it's clear your leading characters want to make love but don't for lack of privacy, among other things, don't take away all those factors only for the man to still cheat instead.

[@laurashields5430]

Where did you find the book?

[@AliciaNyblade]

Since it was written in 1869, the book is now in the public domain and can be found pretty much anywhere online, but it's alos available on Amazon.

[@depressedspiderboi6956]

Alicia Nyblade and iTunes

[@PhantomReviews]

Its in the public domain, I believe you can get a free copy on Kindle from most places.