Since when is stalking romantic?

We watched the newish movie The Phantom of the Opera the other night. I have had the 2-disk cd from the musical for years and years (over 15, I was in high school when I got it). I have sang (sung?) along with the songs - loudly at times - and enjoyed the music very much. I have to admit, I had never actually seen the stage (or other movie) versions of the soundtrack and I apparently lost a bit of the plot by neglecting this aspect of it.

I never really thought of the whole thing necessarily as romantic, but I do know many people who do. The whole time we were watching the movie I was 1) being nagged by CK to not quote line-by-line the entire film (Please, that is the pot calling the kettle black), 2) being told to knock it off when I pointed out the parts in the film that were slightly different from the stage soundtrack, and 3) APPALLED by the fact that the Phantom was a raging lunatic and yet Christine kept going back to him as if he were Casanova. Come on! Was she stupid? Is this some form of Stockholm Syndrome?

Even if she thought for a while that this might have even been her father (in the flesh or reincarnated, whichever), the fact that when he KIDNAPPED her and she saw that he 1) lived in the sewers, 2) had a wax figure of her in a wedding outfit; should have clued her in to the fact that he was a hair off balance.

After the kidnapping, a normal person probably would have gotten the heck out of that theater/town and found a new place to live/work. No, no. She stays and seems surprised when he stalks her further and hangs someone during a performance. Time to run now? I think not. Let's stick around and see just how much worse it can get.

To top it all off, the woman who took in first the lunatic boy who killed someone when he was not even a teen yet and then took in Christine when she was 7 and orphaned, knew all along that this nutso pedophile was stalking Christine since she was 7. And did nothing about it. I guess it was all worth it since he was teaching her how to sing while he STALKED her.

Anyway, I will end my rant here. I could continue into Act 2, but it isn't worth the effort. We all know how it ends. Stalker kidnaps her again, fiancé follows, stalker ties up fiancé and starts to kill him (all while they are all three singing...), chick must choose, she chooses stalker so fiancé can live a miserable life knowing that she is being raped and abused by some lunatic while he cannot do anything about it (better than death? I'm not sure.), lunatic grows a small conscience for a few moments and lets girl and fiancé go, girl still feels attachment towards stalker, girl finally leaves with fiancé, stalker disappears into his lair in the sewers, lynch mob comes for stalker - but does not find him, all is well.

The one thing added in the movie was that it appeared Christine and Raul got married (?) and had a lifetime together. When Raul went to put the creepy lot 665 monkey at her grave, he saw a rose with a ring and a black ribbon lying on the grave. So the stalker was STILL STALKING HER AFTER HER DEATH! And this obsession is apparently romantic. Hmmm. Ok, if you say so.

(I'll still listen to the soundtrack and sing along, but I am going to pretend to still be in my ignorant bliss of not really listening to the words of the songs.)