Title: Les
Misérables
Director: Tom Hooper
Year Released: 2012
Running Time: 158
minutes
Classification:
PG-13 (M)
Genre: Historical
drama, Musical
Tom
Hooper's Les
Misérables
is a lavish production designed to punch you in the heart and jerk
you around by the feelings. If you're not a fan of the stage musical
or musicals in general, then you probably won't like the film –
it's all singing, all the time. On the other hand, if you like
musicals and
being emotionally manipulated, then you're in for a right old treat.
Set
in 19th century France, the film tells a story of interlocking lives –
each, in its own way, touched with misery. At its centre is Jean
Valjean (Hugh Jackman), an escaped convict who remakes himself as an
honest man whilst on the run from the law, in this case personified
by policeman Javert (Russell Crowe). The sweeping narrative is
essentially about people trying to survive in a crapsack world. That
said, Les
Misérables
won't make you too miserable. Sure, a lot of bad things happen, but
in the end enough “good” happens so that you won't leave the
cinema weeping for the fate of humanity, even if you do leave
weeping.
The
main strength of the film lies in its star-studded cast, who by and
large play their roles with the requisite amount of melodrama and
theatrical flair. By now, you've probably heard several opinions
about the live singing. Here are mine:
- My favourites were Anne Hathaway's Fantine, Aaron Tveit's Enjolras and Colm Wilkinson's cameo as the Bishop.
- Hugh Jackman could've been better but I still cried during most of his songs. Such is the power of Hugh Jackman.
- I was expecting Russell Crowe to be horrible given all the bad press, but he's not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. While he's the weakest singer out of the main cast, he wasn't objectively terrible.
- Eddie Redmayne continues to confuse me with his strange/good looks and his Kermit-y singing voice (and I like Kermit, so I don't know what to make of this).
- My main disappointment was Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier – I found him a bit bland and his having a French accent didn't make sense. I know the story's set in France, but when so many characters have cockney accents, well, it's just confusing.
I
must say I really liked the old timey painterly – and occasionally
stage-like – look of the movie. The camera, on the other hand,
seemed to really like close-ups of faces. I presume this is to ensure
that the viewer doesn't miss how heart-wrenching everything is,
because it totally is and you should totally cry, gosh darn it. The
film practically demands the audience to feel for its characters, and
while this might be distracting and annoying for some, I was swept
along in the emotional ride all too easily. The one exception was
(spoiler alert) Javert's suicide scene, which goes so far that it's
almost hilarious.
Two
main problems about the movie were the pacing and the unexplained
bits. With so much story, so many songs and so little time, there are
understandable time constraints, but the oddities were enough to put
a dent in my enjoyment. For example (spoiler alert), it feels as if
Fantine goes from getting fired to selling teeth all within the space
of an afternoon. What about finding another job, Fantine? Or maybe
trying a bit harder to get your old job back? Another thing I
struggled with was the implausibility of the insta-love between
Marius and Cosette (Amanda Seyfreid), and the fact that “being in
love” seemed to be their one collective personality trait. The
revolution (happening because poor people have it bad? or something)
was also badly explained, its execution poorly organised at best and
stupid at worst. Had I not known the general plot beforehand, I would
probably have struggled with understanding what was going on. While
the film is by no means a study in realism, these moments of
incredulity pulled me out of the story and I found myself pondering
the logistics of it all when I should have been crying instead.
The
film is a good adaptation of the musical. The singing and the
emotional punishment might not be for everyone, but for musical
lovers and masochists it's fantastic. The catchy tunes and ~dramatic~
performances make it one of the more pleasant depressing films to
watch. Les
Misérables is
not without flaws, but half the time they're fun to argue about and
the other half of the time you're probably trying too hard not to
ugly-cry to really care.
Alex's
Rating: 3.5/5
