Rated PG-13
Running time: 157 Minutes
Click below to watch the Les Miserables trailer.
In Universal Pictures Les Miserables, former prisoner Jean Valjean, Hugh Jackman, has been on the run from policeman Javert, Russell Crowe, for decades because Valjean/Jackman broke parole for stealing a loaf of bread for Jackman's starving nephew.
This dramatic movie musical based on the theatrical stage musical of Les Miserables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg - which has been performing world-wide for over 25 years as of 2012, and is the longest running musical in the world - is a musical where 99% of the dialog is sung. As a result, you have to really listen to the lyrics of the songs to follow the plot of the movie - which is based on Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, considered to be one of the longest books ever written. What is great is that instead of listening to a playback of the music and then singing the songs, the actors actually sang the songs while they were acting - thus giving more of a performance for the camera as they sing. Set during the time of the Paris Uprising of 1832, otherwise known as the June Rebellion, the story of Les Miserables follows Valjean/Jackman as he transforms from escaped parolee to prominent mayor who undertakes an obligation to rescue the daughter, Cosette - a young Isabelle Allen and Amanda Seyfried - of his former factory employee Fantine, Anne Hathaway, who was thrown out on the street. Although it was a little confusing for me and took me some time to realize that she was being ostracized by the rest of the factory employees for Fantine/Hathaway sending money to her illegitamate child Cosette/young Isabelle Allen.
In all these years, I had never seen the musical Les Miserables or read the book. I have only heard clips of the music and knew of the general story of Javert's manhunt of pursuing Valjean. While my musical theater family and friends were not happy with the stars singing performances in the movie - and with good reason, especially with Crowe's singing - they loved the ensemble cast. It seems like the producers just got stars to make the movie so they can have a greater movie audience. Personally, I accepted the stars, except for Crowe's singing. At least the movie did have some of the Les Miserables stars from the musical production performing in the movie, and the ensemble cast throughout the movie were great. Several of the ensemble cast had performed in various stage productions of Les Miserables, so it was great to have them performing in the movie.
I was blown away by Hathaway's emotional performance of the song "I Dreamed A Dream." I could feel her pain of hitting rock bottom in her life and never climbing out of the hole that she is in - even if her singing might have been a little rough, but that roughness added to the emotion of the song for me as Hathaway did not want to sing it pretty considering the scene. Hathaway supposedly blew everyone away at her audition, leaving them in tears, and I would not be surprised if she had used this song for that audition. Hathaway also cut her hair and lost weight for the role as the sickly Fantine. Make no mistake, this is not a pretty Broadway movie - but a dark historical movie, dealing with the various castes of historical France as well as the bloody Paris Uprising of 1832 from which Hugo's novel is about. Having Hathaway's mother, stage actress Kate McCauley Hathaway, being the first Fantine in the First U.S. National Tour of Les Miserables makes a nice continuity touch with Hathaway portraying Fantine in the movie. Young Isabelle Allen as the young Cosette was very good for her age when she performed. Young Daniel Huttlestone was also good as the young Revolutionary urchin Gavroche.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as Samantha Barks/Eponine's parents - and cruel guardians of the now motherless Cosette/Isabelle Allen - added to the comic relief to the movie, which was a nice contrast to the darkness of the rest of the movie, thus giving their part of the movie a Sweeney Todd type of feel to the movie.
I felt the sudden romantic triangle with Cosette/Seyfried, Marius/Eddie Redmayne, and Eponine/Barks was an obligatory love story - especially when Marius/Redmayne spots Cosette/Seyfried across the way and it is love at first sight, which totally made this plot point unreal for me. Having Cosette/Seyfried losing the hardness of her childhood and becoming seemingly innocent again was also unreal for me. I felt she should have kept her cynisism when initially meeting Marius/Redmayne. But eventually this romantic triangle became an integral story plot to the rest of the movie and made sense, however it did take awhile for this love story to become acceptable to me. I was not happy that the revolutionaries were too well off to be downtrodden citizens, especially Marius/Redmayne with his rich uncle. The revolutionaries were basically liberal college students protesting against the conservative establishment rather than being real downtrodden citizens. The revolutionaries became acceptable to me when they were singing their song of revolution "Do You Hear the People Sing" with the citizens, but otherwise the revolutionaries were still liberal college students instead of poor French citizens.
I was surprised that the movie was not in 3D, but Director Tom Hooper felt that it would not receive a wide enough audience if the movie was in 3D. From the opening shots, the movie would have been great in 3D and would have been one of the first 3D musicals - if not the first 3D musical. As it is, the movie was very visual for material originally developed for the theatrical stage. The Paris Uprising in the movie were actual battles, and not a light show such as shown in the 25th anniversary concert that I had seen on PBS, although the movie uprising was not as graphic as a real uprising would have been. Having Javert/Crowe leading the French soldiers seemed quite appropriate as the symbol of the oppressive establishment, especially as he goes after Valjean/Jackman. What I did not like about the story was that there was no reference to Valjean/Jackman's nephew or sister years later. They were the reason he went to prison. What happened to them? Instead of being with his family, Valjean/Jackman creates a new family with Cosette/Seyfried.
With Valjean/Jackman encountering the Bishop Colm Wilkinson, thus experiencing compassion for perhaps the first time in his life, Valjean/Jackman begins his journey to redemption for his sins of being a thief. This religious encounter basically transforms the rest of Valjean/Jackman's life as he takes on numerous responsibilities for himself and for other people's lives. Valjean/Jackman's redemption is perhaps my favorite theme of the movie - even as Valjean/Jackman struggles with moral consequences, especially when someone is arrested believed to be him - as Valjean/Jackman continuously turns to the God for help and I am glad the movie ended with this theme. I will admit that at the end of the movie, I teared up - which I think was mainly due to this theme, and I am glad of that.
After the movie was over, the audience applauded.
Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. Running time: 157 Minutes.
Click below to watch another musical trailer of Les Miserables.
Pancho
All people smile in the same language.
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