Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne
Run Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Directed By: Tom Hooper
Les Misérables is a story written by Victor Hugo and adapted into a musical. It's the story about redemption even in the most trying of times. Jean Valjean serves 19 years as a slave in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. Upon his release, he is given papers that document him as a criminal and must report to parole once a month for the rest of his life. Although he has his freedom, his papers marking him as a criminal make sure he has nothing else. After a priest saves his life, Valjean decides to turn his life around. Years later, he's a mayor, owns a factory, and is wealthy. Fantine is an employee of his. When the other workers find out that Fantine has an illegitimate daughter, Fantine is fired (although Valjean does not know that she was fired). Fantine takes to the streets as a prostitute to earn money to send to her daughter. When Valjean finds her sick and dying in the streets and saves her from being arrested, he vows to help her daughter Cosette after Fantine dies. Valjean adopts Cosette and lives a modest life until they move to Paris. There Cosette meets the young rebel Marius and falls in love. The Revolution kills all of Marius' comrades but Valjean saves Marius, who has been badly injured in the battle. Knowing that Cosette will be in good hands with Marius and that his past will catch up to him, Valjean leaves... and then dies. Oh yeah, and all this time a cop named Javert has been trailing Valjean, trying to capture the parole breaker.
The musical was big when I was in high school. I had forgotten how much and how many of the songs I knew and that they stayed in my memory. No wonder I don't know who the 23rd president was. I have Les Mis songs bouncing around in my memory.
A musical is nothing without the music. And since there are really no spoken lines in this musical, the voices must be strong. It's singing all the time. I'm a fan of Hugh Jackman. I have Boy From Oz on my iPod. I chose his version over the Glee version so that has to say how much I like Hugh Jackman. I did not, sadly, like him in this performance. I found that some of the songs were either out of his range or just not suited to his voice. I cringed a couple of times. Not Pierce Brosnan in Momma Mia cringe but cringe nonetheless. I was amazed at how much I didn't like him. Perhaps I was so pleasantly surprised by the other strong voices that Hugh's paled in comparison. I wondered briefly to myself why Russell Crowe was cast as Javert, if he could sing and then I remembered that he's in a band. At first, I didn't quite think Russell Crowe suited the part... and then he sang The Confrontation and hit several wonderfully solid notes that I became a fan. Anne Hathaway was absolutely fabulous as Fantine. Fabulous. I was blown away by her voice. She has an amazing voice. I was sad when I realized that Fantine doesn't have many songs. She was seriously the best part of the movie. I wasn't a fan of Amanda Seyfried's Cosette. Too shrill. I hate that. She has a lovely voice but I wasn't enamored with how she handled the songs. The actress who played Éponine was an incredible voice. I preferred to listen to her during Rue Plumet – In My Life (a song that both sing).
This movie is almost three hours long (two hours, 40 minutes, to be precise). There was a moment towards the end where I thought, "Just another half hour to the end" but it just kept going. There's a lot more after Javert's suicide (to me, this isn't a spoiler because the story is well known, however, if I ruined something by mentioning this, I'm sorry). There were parts that were shortened or eliminated altogether so I'm unsure why the moments after Javert's suicide weren't abridged. Perhaps it's because I had to potty that my angst for closure was exaggerated.
Les Miserables was made into a movie in the 90s, starring Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffry Rush as Javert. I couldn't help but wonder if there'd ever be another role that Liam Neeson played that Hugh Jackman would remake. It was a weird thought, a weird feeling.
One note of annoyance: Why is it that these versions tend to have actors who speak with British accents? Gavroche, the little street urchin, had a downright Cockney accent. Um, this is about France... with French people... who should have French accents. Just sayin'.
I'm not quite certain if I like this movie or not. Several parts were rushed; several parts were elongated. Some of the singing wasn't quite polished and disturbed my ears. I was in tears over Fantine's death. I was in tears over Valjean's death (although there were moments of Hugh Jackman overacting). At first, I liked Sacha Baron Cohen's Thénardier and Helena Bonham Carter's Madame Thénardier, particularly in Master of the House... but then they annoyed me the longer they were in the movie... which may have been the point. And the sets looked like sets. Horrible sets from the 50s (cue West Side Story). Perhaps they were trying to make it look as though they were on Broadway... but then the water scene for Javert's death didn't align with that idea. Bizarre.
This movie is worth seeing simply for Anne Hathaway's performance of Fantine. The girl really can sing. Of course, feel free to leave after her death (although she does make an angelic comeback at the end).
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