I’m “biast” (pro): love love love the stage musical
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
There is no possible way I can even pretend to be objective about this movie. Not that I ever do so, but this is an especially bad case of me being hopelessly — and as far as I’m concerned — wonderfully biased. I love Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s rock opera. (Don’t hate me: I haven’t read Victor Hugo’s book. But I did just download it to my Kindle and will get to it soon.) And by love I mean adore. I’ve memorized it. I can sing it all by heart. It speaks to me in ways that I don’t fully understand — but, you know: love honor duty tragedy sacrifice comedy drama despair hope romance revolution, all expressed through song. Les Mis kinda has it all.
And now Tom Hooper’s big-screen adaptation of it is here. He’s made some really great movies that I’ve really loved — The Damned United, The King’s Speech — but they’ve been on a much smaller scale than this bold brash audacious unexpected prism on a classic novel. Could he pull it off? Could any filmmaker make the Les Mis movie of my dreams?
*deep breath*
Hooper has done it. I’m so very very happy. There’s an alchemy in his Les Misérables that brings together the best of screen and the best of stage: songs of heartbreak — and oh boy are there a lot of those in this tale of multifarious woe — that on stage are belted out so that even the cheap seats feel the soaring pain here are all the more crushing for their intimacy. Anne Hathaway’s (The Dark Knight Rises, One Day) Fantine, intensely unlucky in love and life, trembles with soul-deep anguish as she chokes out her ballad of forlorn regret, “I Dreamed a Dream.” Hugh Jackman’s (Rise of the Guardians, Real Steel) fugitive Jean Valjean can barely croak out his astonishment at a kindness offered him while he’s on the run. Russell Crowe’s (The Next Three Days, Robin Hood) policeman Javert growls with proud self-righteousness as he vows never to stop hunting down Valjean in “Stars.” There’s little of the sweeping, epic camerawork we’ve come to expect from movie musicals, nothing that attempts to convey grandness or a larger-than-life heightening of emotions. The emotions don’t need to be artificially inflated, they’re that raw and real, the camera staying close on powerfully expressive faces sometimes to the point that it feels almost obscene, like we should be looking away from such personal moments, not witnessing them. Everything here is very much the same size as life, presented with bald brutality. Even the performances are raw and real: the cast sang live on the set — they weren’t lip-synching to songs recorded in a studio in pristine conditions. They were in the moment, and the moment is almost always one of suffering.
For this is a tale, for those who aren’t familiar with the novel or the show, of a man, Valjean, who jumps parole in early-19th-century France for the chance to make the kind of honest new life for himself that a man known as a convicted felon could not. (His crime: He stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her child. And spent 19 years doing hard labor for it.) He lives in constant fear of being discovered, and though he often agonizes over whether turning himself in would be the right thing to do, he keeps finding selfless reasons not to… as when he adopts the child, Cosette (played as a little girl by Isabelle Allen), of Fantine, a former worker in the factory he owns. After years more hiding in Paris, Cosette (played as an adult by Amanda Seyfried: Gone, In Time) falls in love with a young activist, Marius (Eddie Redmayne: The Other Boleyn Girl, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), on the eve of a new uprising to complete the unfinished work of the French Revolution a generation earlier. Even just that barest of explanations of the plot is rife with opportunities for tragedy and grief, and there’s lots more. Even the comedy — which comes in the form of crude, bawdy innkeepers the Thénardiers (perfectly cast Sacha Baron Cohen [Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, The Dictator] and Helena Bonham Carter [Great Expectations, Dark Shadows]) — is bitter and angry.
It’s almost impossible for me to even venture a guess as to whether those who don’t love the stage show will appreciate this. But I think they might. The usual objections nonfans of musicals have about characters bursting into song inappropriately don’t seem to apply here: the key songs are more like monologues, the revelations of innermost feelings in private moments, not the typical song-and-dance number as an explosion of public joy. There’s nothing fantastical or escapist here — this is nothing like the old-fashioned Hollywood musicals of old. Thematically, too, Les Mis feels fresh and modern. Huge chasms of social and economic inequality, a corrupt and unfair judicial system, rampant cultural desperation… it feels like many of us are living lives today not very different from Valjean’s, Fantine’s, even the Thénardiers. Alas for us that we’re still fighting the same battles.
I’ve seen the film twice now, and it has absolutely floored me.
Les Miz hit me like a lightning bolt out of nowhere a couple of decades ago when I saw the touring production with J. Mark McVey as Valjean, and I’ve been listening to the original Broadway cast recording (and later the 10th Anniversary recording) ever since. Funny that I can’t now recall exactly how many times I actually saw the stage show (not many: once? twice?). But between seeing it and watching videos of various performances and listening to the soundtrack, I’ve been carrying this massive ideal Les Miz in my head that would probably have destroyed any film that tried to live up to it.
And yet it doesn’t destroy this film. Against all odds the movie captured some of that lightning again, for me. It’s made the characters live. It’s made the story breathe.
No, it’s not perfect. In a perfect world Colm Wilkinson would be playing Valjean forever, but Hugh Jackman is fantastic. (And I appreciate the symbolism of Wilkinson passing the silver candlesticks to Jackman, one Valjean to another.) “Bring Him Home” could have been quieter — the hushed falsetto is where it gains its devastating power. Russell Crowe is a serviceable singer; I felt he would have done better to sing everything an octave lower, as he does at the barricades when facing Valjean, and I can’t help wondering what Javert would have sounded like if Paul Bettany had been cast, as was originally rumored. And truthfully, all the songs have been technically performed “better” by more accomplished singers, and I can always go back to those performances if I want a hit of pristine Les Miz music. But what you get with the live-singing on the film (as MAJ points out) is all the unvarnished emotion, raw and ragged. It made me pay attention to the characters and their lived experience, not their vocal prowess. I loved it.
As I’m halfway through the book, it was clear to me that Tom Hooper had read it as well, and I appreciated all the bits of Hugo that he managed to sneak back into the story: the bishop’s sister and maid; the escape into the convent; the man Valjean saved having a chance to return the favor; Javert offering to resign; Javert absent at the court (and Valjean therefore merely saying “and so, your honor, you see it’s true”); Valjean buying Cosette the doll in the shop window; Marius’s grandfather (and therefore Marius’s connections and a sense of what he’s giving up to join the revolution). Gavroche’s extra verse in his introductory song feels like more of Hugo’s philosophy woven back in as well, and I’m sure there are other instances. It’s an interesting experience having Les Miz so much on my mind, both the musical and the book; Hugo says things I absolutely agree with and absolutely disagree with, and it’s fascinating to wrestle with the whole big mess. It’s a religious story through and through, and yet as an atheist I’m totally loving it. “To love another person is to see the face of God” feels like it should be an affront to me, yet it isn’t. Seen a certain way, it’s a totally humanist concept. It isn’t just hell that’s other people; “God” is other people, too, and it’s in each other — and in our compassion and mercy for each other — that we find what’s worthy and what’s good. That’s something I can get behind.
Let’s see, what else:
Eddie Redmayne rather than Nick Jonas? Yes please. I’ll take it.
Aaron Tveit as Enjolras is perfect.
And Anne Hathaway WINS EVERYTHING. That is all.
OMG Paul Bettany was rumoured to be Javert?! That would have been so amazing!! I love him!! He always puts everything he has into his characters. But we got stupid Crowe, who seemed to sing/act only sightly more than half-heartedly.
Maybe that’s why it seemed to me that Crowe wasn’t putting quite his all into his singing. Everyone else looked like they were singing their hearts out, while Crowe looked and sounded like he was just singing. But I’m also biased against him. I really, really dislike him. He always seems to play the same character, which I’ve heard isn’t even a character, it’s just him playing himself: an entitled, pompous ass. Even when he’s a slave. Dude, you’re a slave, just shut up and take it! but then there wouldn’t have been a movie.
I loved it. It had it’s flaws but I didn’t care. I’ve seen it multiple times. It blows my mind. Yes, Crowe can carry a tune, no he has no oomph to compete properly with Jackman. And even Jackman made me cringe a little on the last note of bring him home, but I think that was because he needed to let loose instead of holding his voice back. Yes, I’ve seen better Eponines on stage but you know, who cares, this movie was amazing and Anne Hathaway is my new favorite actress. Well okay she ties with Streep but still! That’s a big jump. Girl rocked it.
LOVE the movie. Great review Maryann.
I went to watch Les Mis last night – (review coming!) and thought it was awesome. I haven’t seen in on stage so had little idea of the story (other than it was set in french revolution era and about the poor.) But it really captivated me!
Hooper’s pulled off another masterpiece and is now 3-0 with me. With that said, and while this was every bit as good as The King’s Speech, I have a couple of gripes:
1. Russell Crowe can’t sing. Sorry ladies, it’s true. He can’t act particularly well either.
2. Maybe it’s my bubbling contempt for Sacha Baron Cohen talking, but the Master of The House scenes completely jar with the rest of the movie. It’s like, one scene we’re in a serious drama, and then, all of a sudden, it’s ‘Oliver!’ I don’t know if this is because the character was tailored to fit Lord Clown, or because of the way he plays it. An expert of the stage musical tells me this discrepancy in tone is intentional, but it still irked me nonetheless. With that said, this was the first time I didn’t hate SBC in something (King Julian notwithstanding, because there I didn’t have to put up with his muggish mannerisms).
As a final note, is there no end to Anne Hathaway’s talents? She’s gorgeous, she can act, she can definitely sing, and she seems to have a brain, judging by her judicious choice of projects. Who’d’a thunk Ms Princess Diaries Disney Girl Of The Week would grow up to be this good?
Oh, and it may just be my modern-day twisted mind, but did anyone else see that scene where Valjean first meets Cosette in the woods and have their inner alarm blaring ‘STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER!’? For a modern film, that scene (and the fact that Cosette trusts this random stranger in the woods who LITERALLY asks ‘what’s your name, little girl?’) is all kinds of iffy.
I agree. It was also baffling to me why Javert would kill himself rather than, you know, GIVE CHASE TO VALJEAN. He’s spent the whole of the rest of the movie doing exactly that, why not this time?! It might be argued that this is a case of morality, but Javert has shown little moral fortitude up until that point, so it jars with his character arc.
Javert has very strict morals – of his own making. He believes with his whole soul that people don’t change. Valjean sparing his life, and not expecting anything in return, turned his whole word upside down, called into question everything he had spent his life doing and believing, and he couldn’t cope.
That’s my take, anyway. I saw the film today and the stage show when I was 14, but I haven’t read the book.
Hey MaryAnn
I saw it last night and I loved it. I have read the book and would recommend. I could have done with more about Marius background especially more about his grandfather who is a delicious character in the book. Also Marius and Cosette take a long time to notice each other in the book over years seeing each other in the Luxembourg Gardens where she and Valjean sit at the same bench every day – to include that would have been lovely. Overall I loved it but wasnt so keen on Eddie Redmayne as Marius – I just found him annoying. But excellent review and I would recommend the book.
The movie was truly amazing. Really. Anne was incredible!
This was absolutely fucking amazing. Anne Hathaway was just unbelievable – gobsmacked.
The audience applauded, in a bog standard Vue cinema in Purley at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was that good.
Ah. I realise I just repeated you!
No, it not an opera. It is an operetta. HUGE difference.
On second thought…my HUGE mistake. It doesn’t meet the standards of opera nor operetta. It is a musical. A great musical. But operas, operettas and musicals do have one thing in common that this motion picture failed to deliver: Great singing. An opportunity was missed. Fortunately, fans of musicals have not been “spoiled” by the artistry of a sublime operatic voice so chances are many of them won’t notice the poor singing in this film. Lucky for them!
I disagree; great singing doesn’t come in just one flavor. It’s different singing, different interpretation, different intent, different context, and, to my ear, delivered to powerful effect. I say this as someone who loves the original Broadway cast recording; has seen Pavarotti, Bartoli, and Te Kanawa live; and plays recordings of Fleming, Sutherland, Upshaw, and Domingo around the house.
As always, of course, YMMV. ;-)
Amended to say: YMMV as far as musical taste goes, but to suggest that fans of musicals have probably never been exposed to opera is presumptuous, ridiculous, and snobbish in the extreme.
*raspberry*
Yeah, I thought Crowe’s singing was kind of stiff, but in a way that suited the character. I think he also gave Javert’s suicide some emotional context – in the later parts of the film he seemed to be gradually coming to the realisation that, although he’s spent his life dedicated to doing right, he’s actually a bad guy – culminating when he pinned his medal on Gavroche’s body. When Valjean had him at his mercy, I think he was ready to die, and part of him was disappointed not to.
I’ve come to Les Mis almost completely fresh. I’ve been taking singing classes, and for the last couple of weeks we’ve been doing “One Day More” – that’s my first exposure to the show. I’m singing Valjean, so I’ve been watching lots of Colm Wilkinson on YouTube. So Jackman’s vocal performance disappointed me slightly. His voice is a bit light – Valjean suits a darker voice – and he kind of lets the emotion of the acting overwhelm the tunes a bit too much. But Anne Hathaway, like everybody is saying, was just extraordinary.