Anyone that knows me knows that movies that are musicals are not movies I clamor to see. While Les Miserables came out on Christmas we ended up seeing it three days after it was released. This was a movie that I was very interested to see after seeing the trailers especially since I knew my wife would be very interested in seeing it. It has just taken me a lot of time to actually getting around to writing the review because in all honesty I have been back and forth on how I felt about the movie so I had to get to my own decision on how I felt about the movie. I had seen the Les Miserables stage production on Broadway which while this gave me a preconceived notion of what and how the musical should go, but with the fact that it had been nearly 12 years since I had seen the musical I was not remembering too much about all the different details. When it comes to a film adaptation the simply most important rue is to change as little as possible. The film makers seemed to know this perfectly and while they did have changes they were very subtle in the end, from slightly shortening a few songs to changing a line or two of dialogue.
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean simply embodied the role perfectly. Jackman is perfect and I seriously believe that there is no role that Jackman can't do. The little nuances that he does like slightly changing his voice as his character ages gives his character more depth. Anne Hathaway in the role of Fantine is amazing and her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream is truly powerful. It is amazing to see how strong her performance was to win the supporting actress Oscar with being onscreen for really only 15-20 minutes of the movie. In the supporting cast Sacha Baren Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as Thenardier and Madame Thenardier nearly stole the show for me. Anytime they were onscreen they had me laughing with the different antics or schemes they were up to. Russell Crowe as Javert was decent, but his voice was not as strong as necessary for our main nemesis for Jean Valjean. The rest of the supporting cast do very well and there are really some up and coming stars that if they continue to give very similar performances they will have very strong movie careers.
The direction of Tom Hooper was very daring. Most musicals the songs are sung and recorded in a studio well before they actually start the filming. However Hooper decided to have them sing the songs live while filming, believing that this will allow the emotion to come through more from the actors and hopefully have this convey the power to more of the audience. This concept truly brought out the necessary emotion for such a powerful story. Having so much music could have worked both ways for the movie, yet for me the music worked as it conveyed such strong emotions that I truly felt like I connected with all the struggles that the citizens of 19th century France faced. The only weakness I see in the story for Les Miserables, is for those that may have not known the story upon going to see the movie that there are a few plot points that could be very confusing. However, these confusing points are either explained later on or not necessary to be explained because they are truly minor points that you do not need to dwell on.
Film allows a depth of scale that challenges the stage in many different aspects. The Song Do You Hear the People Sing emerges from a quiet call to arms that pace by pace takes over the funeral procession for General Lemarque. Along the same lines the transition that takes place during the song At the End of the Day takes us through the slums and dreariness of Paris which can not be shown the same way on stage. While there are aspects that never transfer over to film like on stage, there are some that still work amazing on film. The ability they have to give close ups of the different characters for some of the songs allows some parts in songs to be reduced to a chilling whisper at times that sent goosebumps down my spine. The production for Les Miserables is one of the bet past period pieces that I have seen. The make up, costumes and set pieces worked so well. It was nice to see them not have the teeth be pearly white like the actors are, but instead the made the teeth look like the way they would have been in 19th century France. While the CGI was not amazing it did give help the sets give a great visual of a world very much in a fantastical view.
Les Miserables ended up being a movie that deserved the awards and nominations it received. Hugh Jackman was beyond great in the role and worked so well with the other actors. Hooper's direction was really pushing the typical musical particularly by using the actors singing live rather than pre-recorded. I am giving Les Miserables four buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that is definitely worth seeing and is one that we will be adding to our movie collection in the very near future.
-The Movie Man
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