Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie
Redmayne, and Amanda Seyfried
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Screenplay by: William Nicholson and Alain Boublil
Based on the Broadway musical and on the novel by Victor Hugo
It’s post-revolutionary France, and
our story follows the life of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman). He has been released from prison and breaks
his parole, which would send him back.
He instead flees and is hunted by Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). While a fugitive, Valjean must create a new
life for himself wherever he goes.
A few years have passed, and we
meet Jean Valjean again. He has become
the mayor of a town called Montreuil.
There is an incident at a factory, where one of the workers, Fantine
(Anne Hathaway), has been arrested by Javert.
Because Javert does not recognize Valjean at first, he convinces Javert
to release her, and Valjean takes care of Fantine after that. He finds her in poor health and that she has
a small child named Cosette. Fantine
dies and Cosette goes to live with the Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and
Helena Bonham Carter). They don’t take
very good care of Cosette and Valjean eventually takes her away from their care
and raises Cosette himself.
Fast-forward more years, and our
story takes us to Paris. Cosette (Amanda
Seyfried) is older and still raised by Valjean.
They are still on the run from Javert.
But conditions in Paris are bad, bad to the point where a revolution
becomes imminent. Marius (Eddie
Redmayne) is a student who joins a group of youth who plan to revolt. Cosette meets Marius, and they fall in
love. Valjean doesn’t like Marius and
tries to keep him away from Cosette, but will it work? Or will love triumph?
The film’s story is quite lengthy,
and with a run time of 158 minutes, it feels like you’re sitting in the theater
for an eternity. The film stays as true
to its Broadway musical counterpart as possible, but with a few
exceptions. Some songs were taken out,
and one song was added just for the movie.
Most musicals have at least some
dialogue in some parts of the film, but there is almost no dialogue in Les Miserables. So you better like a movie with
essentially non-stop singing if you’re going to see this movie.
In terms of actors’ performances,
most are quite impressive, with the exception of Russell Crowe. It is difficult to imagine him in a role that
involves singing because he has an incredibly deep voice. His singing is not great and he delivers by
far the worst performance in this film.
It’s definitely not the role for him and I think he was miscast.
Anne Hathaway on the other hand,
never fails to impress. She has a
wonderful voice, and for the twenty or so minutes that she actually appears in
the film, she is incredible. Her solo of
“I Dreamed a Dream” is a single take.
This single shot involves a wide range of emotions and she executes this
role in a truly amazing fashion and, in my opinion, is the best single
performance of the film. It will have
you applauding at the end.
My favorite
overall performance though is that of Hugh Jackman. The role of Jean Valjean on screen seems to
be an unbelievably difficult role, and Jackman delivers a tremendous
performance. Not only is he a talented
actor, but a great singer in this film.
Les Miserables is a far different
musical from many other musicals. In the
past, actor’s voices were recorded in a studio for their singing performances,
and sometimes, their voices were dubbed by a singer in the background. In Les
Miserables, all of the singing is done live and by the actors, giving the
film a more natural sound and feeling.
The set
design and costume design are both magnificent, and make this film seem almost
larger than life. I am a huge fan of
epic films such as this, especially when these films impress me as much as this
one.
Overall, Les Miserables is my favorite film of
last year, even though many people disagree with me. I give it an A+.
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