Official Reviews (Spoiler Alert)

[jo]

From Drew McWeeny -- the HITFIX review.

Drew McWeeny is one of the more respected film bloggers in the fanboy universe (really the younger movie demographics). He was once a stalwart for AICN.

www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/review-long-awaited-film-version -of-les-miserables-delivers-huge-emotion#5SXhvDfy8rFaVKO8.99



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: Long-awaited film version of 'Les Miserables' delivers huge emotion

While not everything works, there is real beauty and power to the film

By Drew McWeeny Friday, Dec 7, 2012 12:30 PM


Critic's Rating B+
Readers' Rating A-
Rate It


Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg certainly did not need for a film adaptation of "Les Miserables" to happen to validate the work. After all, this is one of the most successful stage productions of all time, omnipresent for over over two decades, beloved and still relevant. There was a point in Hollywood history where any successful stage musical was automatically brought to the screen in the most lavish possible fashion, but that hasn't been true for many years now. Musicals, like Westerns, are increasingly rare, and Hollywood is no longer turning out performers who are automatically at home singing and dancing in front of the camera. For Tom Hooper, following up "The King's Speech" was going to be tough no matter what, and I'll give him credit for ambition. He called his shot and swung for a home run, and while he didn't knock it out of the park, the material itself is so strong, and the film's cast is so game, that it doesn't matter.

The script by Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel, James Fenton and William Nicholson is very faithful to the original stage production, which plays almost as a highlights reel of Victor Hugo's novel. There is a sort of runaway train quality to the narrative, and the film maintains that same breakneck pace from the visually arresting opening moments to the final haunting moments. There is a feeling at times that things move so quickly and with such unrelenting pace that it's hard to catch your breath, hard to let yourself fully experience a beat emotionally, but that's the production itself. It's just inherent to how they've told the story. And while there are certainly things about the film that make full use of the difference between stage and screen, this still feels like a fairly intimately scaled story considering the time span it covers and the huge cast of characters involved.

The film opens with a shot underwater, looking up at a faded French flag floating on the surface, as the camera moves in on it, then past it, breaking the surface to reveal a giant ship being pulled into a shipyard, racing down the giant ropes held taut by long lines of prisoners, finally finding one prisoner in particular, a man worn gaunt by hard labor. Hugh Jackman has finally found a film role that allows him to use his undeniable gifts as a song and dance man, and every bit of his musical theater training comes into play in his work as Jean Valjean. He easily conveys the turbulent inner life of Valjean, and he looks like a guy who is just barely holding it together physically. The opening movement of the film is all about his relationship with Javert #Russell Crowe#, a policeman who believes firmly that criminals never change. When Valjean is given his parole, Javert reminds him that he will always be marked by his crimes, that he will never truly be free again. Valjean tries to establish his new life, tries to find legitimate work, but as long as he carries his papers as a criminal, no one is going to let him forget and no one is going to trust him. When he find solace and shelter one night in a church, all of that anger and hurt that he's built up expresses itself in one impulsive act. He takes as much silver as he can and he flees, not really thinking his way through his actions. He is caught almost immediately and hauled back to face the Bishop #Colm Wilkinson# that he stole from, and he is stunned when the Bishop confirms his story, telling the police that all of the silver was a gift, going so far as to add the candlesticks that Valjean missed the first time. He tells Valjean that this is his chance to truly start over, and Valjean takes that chance.

Years go by, and when we catch up with Valjean, he's now the owner of a factory, a respected employer, a remade man. Now the focus of the story shifts, and Fantine #Anne Hathaway# becomes the main character for a stretch. She's one of his employees, and she does her best to keep her head down, to stay invisible. She has a child who she had to leave in someone else's care, and she sends every penny she earns to go towards the little girl's care. Because she keeps to herself, she's an easy target for the other women she works with, and when there's a problem at the factory, she's the one who is blamed for it. She tries to appeal to Valjean, but she is fired and tossed out in the street, and Hooper paints a truly ugly portrait of her quick slide into the dark and terrible corners of life on the streets. Many people know Fantine's big number in the film, "I Dreamed A Dream," but taken out of context, it's so pretty that the message can get lost. By contrast, Hooper heaps on the grime and the the bleak, so when Anne Hathaway finally launches into the song, it comes from a place of absolute darkness. Hooper stays in close on her the entire time, and it feels like a hopeless prayer, a cry for help heard by no one. It is a shattering moment, and for the first time in a long time, it feels like that song finally works as intended again, not as this lovely uplifting anthem, but rather as one last gasp before Fantine's light is fully extinguished.

Once Valjean realizes what role he played in Fantine's fate, he vows to rescue her daughter and raise her well, leading to the film's second big jump forward in time as Cosette goes from charming little girl, played by Isabelle Allen, to fetching young woman, played by Amanda Seyfried. The entire time, Javert keeps crossing back into the life of Valjean, who is determined to preserve his hard-won freedom, while civil unrest and a growing sense of revolution plays out as the backdrop for this story of lies and redemption. Cosette falls in love with Marius #Eddie Redmayne#, the same young revolutionary that Eponine #Samantha Barks# carries a torch for, and as the personal stories come to a head, so does the revolution, allowing for big sweeping numbers as well as small personal songs. It's a huge canvass, which makes it feel a little odd at times that we see the same few blocks of Paris over and over. I understand shooting on soundstages so that you can preserve the live performances of the actors, but it feels like Hooper didn't quite open the world up enough at times.

It's interesting to see very different performance styles up against each other in the film. Jackman, as I said, is at home here, and he gives a wonderful performance as Valjean. He plays the anger, the sorrow, the brief moments of joy, all with nuance and skill, and his voice is fantastic. Eddie Redmayne is probably the big revelation of the film, and he has a great singing voice as well. Seyfried is very pretty as Cosette, and she's got a sweet little trill of a voice, but as is often the case with "the love interest," she's very underwritten, and it's a tough role to make interesting. Samantha Barks actually fares better with her brief turn as Eponine, and much of the cast scores even in small moments. Perhaps the most controversial casting decision in the film was Russell Crowe, and it's true that he doesn't have the same sort of musical theater background as Jackman. When Crowe sings, he tends to plant himself on a mark and just sort of belt it at the back wall, and I like this big baritone rock'n'roll voice. I think it's appropriate that he sounds very different than anyone else in the film, since Javert stands apart from everyone else in the film, driven by his duty. The problem in Javert's two big songs, though, is that when Crowe goes stationary, Hooper seems to think that's his cue to make his camera work even harder, swooping around Crowe frantically.

That's perhaps the film's one big problem: Hooper often overwhelms the material with his approach. He is not afraid of bombast, but when you go that big, you can lose the human heart of what you're doing. The best thing he does is when he gets close to his performers, creating an intimacy that can't happen on stage. When he goes for big and sweeping, though, it sometimes feels like he isn't quite sure what to do with his frame or how to make things work on that big canvas. I also think his choice to hire Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter to play the Thenardiers is sort of a disaster, as they appear to be beamed in from another movie. Broad and hammy and relentlessly vulgar, they have two big numbers, and I don't think either one really works. They're a minor speed bump, though. For the most part, I think the film does a nice job of sustaining a specific energy and tone.

Tech credits are strong throughout, including Danny Cohen's cinematography and the digital effects used to build out the world around the sets are stylized and lovely. For many audiences, this will become the definitive version of the musical, and I think it is a very strong production overall. While I think it reveals some of Hooper's weaknesses as a filmmaker, it plays to enough of his strengths that it looks like the long wait to bring this to the screen paid off. "Les Miserables," like many musicals, is ultimately about emotion, and that's the one thing that comes through loud and clear here. When it all comes down to the singing, the communication of these grand, sweeping passions in song, "Les Miserables" connects and connects and connects again, and on that level, it has to be called a triumph.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If I remember right, Drew is a bit of a Hugh fan

Jo

[foxie]

Well guysit has to be good it is all I want for Christmas!

[jo]

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News was reporting that a BLU-RAY copy of the RNT Oklahoma! has been released but made these comments on Hugh --

www.aintitcool.com/node/59871

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After watching LES MISERABLES with Hugh Jackman as Jean ValJean… which is one of those performances that completely rewrites everything you knew about this actor. It’s strange from the opening shots of this film, I could tell that Jackman was giving more of himself into this performance than in anything since THE FOUNTAIN. Brilliant musical acting. Just stunning iconic work. I must see his OKLAHOMA! It isn’t the same, it isn’t a fully filmed production, just a capturing of the great play. But yeah, I have to order this one!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


What do you know -- the fanboys seem to be liking Les Miserables. Add the reviews of Drew McWeeny( HitFix) and ComingSoon.net to the group.


Jo

[jo]

A 5-star review from Matthew Bond, via The Daily Mail --

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2245284/Les-Miserables-Reviewer-Matthew-Bond-gives-stars.html


Sorry, I can't reprint it -- but it does have fulsome praise for Hugh's performance and projects a nomination for him.

Jo

[jo]

A report from film blogger ANNE THOMPSON re the movie and the embargo.

blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/review-roundup-les-miserables

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Les Miserables' Review Roundup; Hooper and Cast Talk Singing Live

Reviews.
by Anne Thompson
December 6, 2012 2:51 PM
4 Comments



The review embargo for Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables" has lifted. Critics are singing the praises of the film's strong performances (Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman are standouts), and admire the successful hybridizing of the musical with the Victor Hugo source material, but for some the film sags under its own bombast. Review roundup below.

One of the dividing lines between same-old and must-see is a filmmaker willing to take a huge risk in pursuit of the new new thing. In this case, Tom Hooper had the balls to do what Peter Bogdanovich failed at so memorably with "At Long Last Love"--have his actors sing live on set. Hooper had newer technology. While Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced to a live orchestra, Hooper had a pianist on set watching a monitor, accompanying the singers live, tuning in to their rhythm and cadence, as they acted while they sang. They could hear the piano in their molded ear pieces. The score was added later, but the singers did not have to sync to a prerecorded track. When he recorded multiple harmonies separately, the actors had to count to a marked tempo track.

Hooper admitted that he was so struck by the way audiences all over the world responded to "The King's Speech" --a movie that in many ways paved the way for the plethora of strong adult pictures in the market right now--that he wanted to "try to find a story as, or even more, emotional," he said at the Q & A after one of the first SAG member screenings Thanksgiving weekend, packed with "Les Miserables" fans. "That way of energizing people is so satisfying. 'Les Miserables' is a story where you feel the music with a heightened emotional reality. Live singing became a passion of mine."

A lot of people tried to talk him out of it, Hooper said. And Eric Fellner, co-chair of Working Title, admitted to me that they were not sure if it would work until they saw the finished film. "Good acting is being in the moment," Hooper told his target audience. "It's the pure language of the present. Arthur Miller said that if you sing to playback your choices are predecided, you don't have freedom in real time. Acting is generating the illusion that you are creating these lines from your soul, inventing them." This way, Hooper argues, his actors were allowed to become emotional, and control the tempo, which was "vital to the process."

Any stage musical fan has seen this show more than once, knows the score, and recognizes the degree of difficulty not only for the filmmakers but the actors. These actors prepared. They had to. Their voices wouldn't have lasted otherwise. Thus Hooper auditioned every actor including Jackman and Russell Crowe: "No exception," he said. "They had to not just be able to sing but act and hold a closeup, they had to turn it into storytelling. It was exciting at early auditions to meet a man who showed me how it could be done. Hugh Jackman was on a short list of one for Valjean. Hugh sang around a piano at a three-hour audition. I realized he unleashed a huge power when acting through song. You allow an entire different, hidden self to emerge."

Jackman brought a spirituality to his role as Valjean, says Hooper. "He'd go through tough times, tired, under pressure. He's kind of saintly, always gracious, never snaps, he's a great leader, has inner grace as a human being. To be a good man is a lot of hard work. To practice being good is a daily struggle. He fundamentally understood that inherent conflict and brought it to the role." Hooper added a new song for Javert [sic] about what it's like to become an unexpected parent, written by the musical's original writers.

Hooper bores in on these actors with two cameras, one up close, in long often uninterrupted takes-- Hathaway could win an Oscar for singing Fantine's tour-de-force "I Dreamed a Dream" with no cuts--because he couldn't do the standard coverage. Even so, he told me after the screening, some numbers went as long as 15 and 21 takes. "We didn't do them all right away," he reminded. "Maybe we'd do a turnaround." Hathaway nailed hers in eight. Even onstage, a performer doesn't do the same song over and over. But they do sing many songs a night, eight performances a week. (Hathaway talks about singing her role here.)

The theater-trained actors do best, especially Jackman as the embattled Valjean and Brit film rookie Samantha Barks, who traveled for four years with the show as Eponine. Hooper saw her in the show two years ago but went through the arduous process of making her beat out the intense competiton for the role. "This girl is fearless," he said. Many of the cast are drawn from the ranks of "Les Mis" vets.

"Mamma Mia!" star Amanda Seyfried does fine as Cosette--even without three days of pre-recording and fixing to make her better. "This is completely me," she said. "I had to keep my voice in shape. It was so overwhelming and liberating, it's another level of emoting...it gets you to a place beyond the music." She prepared on her own for four months and had three to four weeks rehearsal. The actors ean through their voice exercises en route to set every day.

"They prepared like you wouldn't believe," said Hooper. "But you can't be perfectionist." The trickiest thing was getting the actors to sing powerfully while keeping their faces relaxed, not contorting grotesquely in intimate close-up.

Hooper seems to have less confidence in the performance of Russell Crowe as Valjean tormenter Javert, who is physically threatening and gets out the songs, but doesn't do much with his performance--he's playing the gendarme sympathetically--so Hooper pulls the camera out and has him walk along various impossibly high parapets high above Paris. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter offer welcome comic relief as shady innkeepers in sequences very similar to Carter's in "Sweeney Todd," to which this musical can be compared. Hooper worked with Eddie Redmayne six years ago on "Elizabeth I," and gave the actor the chance to improve his singing. Redmayne gives a breakout performance --he's in demand now, as the next young Brit leading man. He could land a supporting nod. You'll see him everywhere.

"Les Mis" is yet another movie this year that heads for stylization visually while it seeks emotional truth. "Anna Karenina" and "Life of Pi" also fall into this category. He also shot on location in France. Hooper filmed with five cameramen dressed as peasants as his actors scrambled to build the Paris barricades with real furniture thrown out of windows on an elaborate 350-foot-high Paris set. "We had ten minutes of stock in the cameras," recalled Redmayne. "'Build a barricade! Action!' It was anarchy. We didn't know where the cameras were. Complete fear. It was makeshift, we pieced together what we could. It was wonderful and terrifying." Hooper used what they built.

The emotional intensity of "Les Miserables" doesn't work for everybody; it sends some running out of the theater. Thus the so-called steakeaters in the Academy may not go for this. But musicals have historically done well, from "Oliver!" to 'Chicago." Academy attention will also help propel the film at the global box office.

Here's the review round-up:

Variety:


As a faithful rendering of a justly beloved musical, "Les Miserables" will more than satisfy the show's legions of fans. Even so, director Tom Hooper and the producers have taken a number of artistic liberties with this lavish bigscreen interpretation: The squalor and upheaval of early 19th-century France are conveyed with a vividness that would have made Victor Hugo proud, heightened by the raw, hungry intensity of the actors' live oncamera vocals. Yet for all its expected highs, the adaptation has been managed with more gusto than grace; at the end of the day, this impassioned epic too often topples beneath the weight of its own grandiosity.

The Hollywood Reporter:

A gallery of stellar performers wages a Sisyphean battle against musical diahrrea and a laboriously repetitive visual approach in the big-screen version of the stage sensation Les Miserables… Director Tom Hooper has turned the theatrical extravaganza into something that is far less about the rigors of existence in early 19th century France than it is about actors emoting mightily and singing their guts out. As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's good.

Daily Mail:

Les Miserables is a five-star movie musical extravaganza that hums with the spirit of Victor Hugo's classic novel and the landmark stage show upon which it's based. But Tom Hooper, who already has an Oscar under his belt for The King's Speech, has crafted a work, both stunning and stirring, that holds its own in cinematic terms. His casting of Hugh Jackman, giving the screen performance of his career, as the unfairly pursued fugitive Jean Valjean is a masterstroke because Jackman anchors the film with aplomb.

Screen:

With Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe starring - and singing - for director Tom Hooper, the highly anticipated Les Misérables is a bold sung-through adaptation of the massively popular stage musical that substitutes close-up intimacy and naturalism for theatrical scale and sheen. The approach could well divide audiences, with fans of the show and musical theatre in general falling heavily for the full-on emotion and non-fans finding it all a bit confusing and over the top.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jo

[jo]

This is a review for ASSOCIATED PRESS that will get replicated in many media outlets worldwide. 2.5 stars out of 4.

www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/10/3096486/review-hoopers-les-miserab les.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review: Hooper's `Les Miserables' is relentless

By CHRISTY LEMIRE - AP Movie Critic
Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 | 12:59 PM

Tom Hooper's extravaganza, big-screen telling of the beloved musical "Les Miserables" is as relentlessly driven as the ruthless Inspector Javert himself. It simply will not let up until you've Felt Something - powerfully and repeatedly - until you've touched the grime and smelled the squalor and cried a few tears of your own.

It is enormous and sprawling and not the slightest bit subtle. But at the same time it's hard not to admire the ambition that drives such an approach, as well as Hooper's efforts to combine a rousing, old-fashioned musical tale with contemporary and immediate aesthetics. There's a lot of hand-held camerawork here, a lot of rushing and swooping through the crowded, volatile slums of Victor Hugo's 19th-century France.

Two years after the release of his inspiring, crowd-pleasing "The King's Speech," winner of four Academy Awards including best picture, Hooper has vastly expanded his scope but also jettisoned all remnants of restraint.

But he also does something clever in asking his actors sing live on camera, rather than having them record their vocals in a booth somewhere as is the norm, and for shooting the big numbers in single takes. The intimacy can be uncomfortable at times and that closeness highlights self-indulgent tendencies, but the meaning behind lyrics which have become so well-known shines through anew. You'd probably heard "I Dreamed a Dream," the plaintive ballad of the doomed prostitute Fantine, sung countless times even before Susan Boyle unfortunately popularized it again in 2009. An emaciated and shorn Anne Hathaway finds fresh pain and regret in those words because her rendition is choked with sobs, because it's not perfect.

That's definitely part of the fascination of this version of "Les Miserables": seeing how these A-list stars handle the demands of near-constant singing. Hugh Jackman, as the hero and former prisoner Jean Valjean, is a musical theatre veteran and seems totally in command (although the higher part of his register gets a bit nasal and strained). Amanda Seyfried, as Fantine's daughter, Cosette, whom Jean Valjean adopts, had already proven she can sing in "Mamma Mia!" but hits some freakishly high notes here - which isn't always a good thing. Eddie Redmayne is a lovely surprise as the love-struck revolutionary Marius. And of course, Samantha Barks gives an effortless performance as the lonely and doomed Eponine - everyone here is doomed, it's "Les Miserables" - a role she'd performed on the London stage.

And then there's Russell Crowe as the obsessed lawman Javert, who has pursued Jean Valjean for decades for breaking his parole and insists he's still a dangerous man, despite the pious and prosperous life Valjean has forged. Although Crowe has sung in rock bands for years, he's vocally overmatched here, which strips the character of the menace that defines him. Seeing him sing opposite Jackman makes you wish you could watch these same actors having these same conversations with, like, actual words. But again, it's hard not to appreciate the effort, the risk it required to take on the role.

For the uninitiated, Javert hunts for Valjean against the backdrop of the Paris Uprising of 1832. Adorable street urchins, sassy prostitutes and virile subversives band together to build barricades, and to sing on top of them, until they are gunned down by French troops. The adorably smitten Cosette and Marius wonder whether they'll ever see each other again. Thieving innkeepers Monsieur and Madame Thenardier (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, garishly over-the-top even by the characters' standards) wonder when their next unsuspecting victim will come along. And Jean Valjean wonders whether he'll ever truly be free.

How you feel walking out of this film two and a half hours later will depend a great deal on what you brought into it going in. Maybe you listened to the soundtrack fanatically in high school and still know all the words to "On My Own." Perhaps you were thrilled to see the show on stage during a vacation to New York (and there's a nice little cameo from Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean from the London and Broadway productions). You will probably be in far better shape than someone coming into this cold.

You may even cry when key characters die, even though you know full well what fate awaits them. There's no shame in that - we're all friends here.

"Les Miserables," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements. Running time: 158 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why are the comments focused mostly on the singing ( she is not reviewing for the Broadway crowds) and not so much on the acting?

Jo

[jo]

www.mercurynews.com/movies-dvd/ci_22171067/review-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review: 'Les Miserables,' short on subtlety but big on sentiment
By Karen D'Souza
Posted: 12/12/2012 04:00:00 AM PST



Based on Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's blockbuster musical, which has been seen by nearly 60 million people worldwide since its 1985 debut, this ambitious big screen adaptation may be short on subtlety but it comes up huge for sheer gobsmacking sentiment. While the film has many flaws, from sloppy pacing and imperfect vocals to a miscast Russell Crowe as the vile inspector Javert, there's no denying its devastating emotional ferocity.

And if you are in the mood for a good cry (or three!), rejoice. Your eyes may well be red for days after this

relentless tear-jerker. Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") stays very true to the muckraking spirit of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, its harrowing denunciation of a society that oppresses the many to benefit the few.

Indeed one of the most visceral aspects of this gorgeously-shot epic is its embrace of grittiness. Panoramic shots of the poor, faces encrusted with sores and grime, begging for pennies from the rich, drive home the desperation of 19th century France. This unflinching depiction of the brutal nature of squalor gives the film its bite.

But there is also a price to be paid for all that realism. Sometimes the sprawling melodrama is so dire and grim that it's hard to find comfort in the rousing score and comic interludes.

The garish antics of the thieving Thenardiers fall flat here. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter generate no zest in scenes that should be outrageously funny. Cohen, who was such a hoot as "Borat," in particular comes off quite drab.

Eponine (the gifted Samantha Barker) also loses some of her sauciness because there is no mischievous glee lurking beneath the tragedy. "The Lovely Ladies" number is so horrific it's hard to sit through. That lack of comic

This film image released by Universal Pictures shows Anne Hathaway as Fantine in a scene from "Les Miserables." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures) relief can make the picture seem bombastic instead of sweeping.

That said, it's hard to resist the movie's wrenching sense of intimacy.

The real revelation here is Anne Hathaway. While some have brought better pipes to the part, no actress has made the ill-fated Fantine more utterly believable. Here she is not a simpleton or a saint, just a real woman degraded by an uncaring world. Her hair savagely shorn, the haunting Hathaway seems a natural for an Oscar nod.

Cheated out of her youth, Fantine slaves away in a factory in backbreaking drudgery. When she loses her job through no fault of her own, she is reduced to the gutter. Desperate to support her small child, she sells all she has, her hair, her teeth and finally her body as one of the "Lovely Ladies."

Hathaway radiates her broken spirit but also her steel. Fantine would gladly die to save Cosette (Amanda Seyfried). Her shattering rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" will reduce many to sobs. It's all the more beautiful for the imperfections captured by the live singing technique.

For his part Hugh Jackman, a Broadway baby at heart, carries the rest of the picture as the ultimate underdog Jean Valjean who languishes in prison for 20 years after stealing a single loaf of bread to feed a starving boy. Once he is released from the clutches of the dastardly copper Javert (a one-dimensional turn by Crowe), he finds himself tainted by his conviction, hounded like a dog, roaming the country in search

This film image released by Universal Pictures shows Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean in a scene from "Les Miserables." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Laurie Sparham) ( Laurie Sparham )of salvation.

If some of the actors sound strained reaching for the high notes in this classic score, such as the shaky Seyfried in Cosette's duets with the college radical Marius (Eddie Redmayne), Jackman sounds like he is having the time of his life. He gilds the forgettable new song "Suddenly" with a sense of dawning redemption.

Unfortunately "Les Miz" can't shine as brightly as it should without a proper villain to torment Valjean and Crowe seems tame as the menacing Javert. He's a decent actor but he can't emote and sing at the same time and that undercuts many of the film's pivotal confrontations. Perhaps if the score had not been recorded live this flaw would be less grating.

While the antagonism between Valjean

This film image released by Universal Pictures shows Eddie Redmayne as Marius, left, and Amanda Seyfried as Cosette in a scene from "Les Miserables." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, James Fisher) ( James Fisher )and Javert never cuts as deeply as it should, Hooper magnificently captures the throb and pulse of revolutionary Paris. He and cinematographer Danny Cohen open up the action of the play in sweeping scenes of pageantry such as peasants hurling furniture out of garret windows to make a barricade.

These live action shots are far more eye-popping than the movie's CGI interludes because they humanize the spirit of revolt, the thrilling seduction of anthems such as "One Day More" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?" The real love story coursing through "Les Miz," after all, isn't about any one man or woman, it's about the yearning of the people to be free.

'les miserables'

* * *



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jo

[klenotka]

Samantha Barker? How can I take seriously a review, where the reviewer has the name of one of the main actresses wrong?

[birchie]

I'm not sure what's considered an "official review". I actually don't consider most of them official & I don't really read most of them, but I accidentally stumbled upon this & since this is the only review thread, I'm putting it here. Really not so much a review, just a couple of fangirls, but it's so funny!! They're like a couple of Valley Girls or whatever the NY equivalent of a Valley Girl might be.
So fasten your seat belts: youtu.be/hfhi_m6eE6w
Sue

[jo]

Guess who referred this review --

Sasha Stone‏@awardsdaily

Finally a legit review of Les Mis for fans to celebrate www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/12/les-miserables-mo vie-review/60013/ …

Ha! ;D



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


'Les Miserables': Destroying Cynicism with Song
Universal

Richard Lawson 2,029 Views2:24 PM ET

There are moments in Les Misérables, the movie musical adaptation from The King's Speech director Tom Hooper, that are so rumbling and rousing and righteous that certain people might be immediately transported back into the theater seat where they, smaller of body but probably bigger of heart, first fell in love with the sweep and swoon of musical theater. That's the big, definitive declaration I'm going to make about this turgid movie, a gut-pouring melodrama that never flinches in the face of its own largeness. I'm not sure how people who are not musical obsessives will react to the film — it takes the form very seriously — but for those with any decent amount of showtune-itis in their blood, Les Misérables is, I'm surprised to find myself saying, something of a must-see.

For those of you who weren't forced to read Victor Hugo's novel in high school or have never had a wacky aunt drag them to the stage show: Les Misérables tells the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) who flees parole to start a new life, only to have the stubborn Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) doggedly pursue him over the years. Valjean eventually becomes the father-figure ward of a young girl named Cosette (Amanda Seyfried, when she's older) whose mother Fantine (Anne Hathaway) — spoiler alert for a 150-year-old novel? — dies early on in the story. Valjean and Cosette get swept up in the 1832 June Rebellion, Cosette particularly with a young revolutionary named Marius (Eddie Redmayne). Hearts bend and break, people sing and die, and the world, or at least Paris, points toward a brave new tomorrow. It's a years-spanning, dramatic cliché-wielding bludgeon of a yarn, rife with too-convenient connections (roughly twenty people live in all of Paris, it seems) and heavily rendered sentiment, and the great thing about this movie is that it knows all of that about itself. Hooper and his cast throw any concern about the story's innate cornballness right into the Seine, and proceed with a dedication of purpose that is almost as stirring as the show itself. Everyone sings with eye-bulging passion, sweat and tears dripping down their dirty faces, which Hooper often shoots in tight, insistent closeup. The much-discussed choice to record the actors singing live, instead of laying track over in post, pays off handsomely; the musical numbers are urgent and natural, not the warmed-over, hokey, slick stuff of Nine or Rock of Ages. Those may be unfair comparisons, but frankly it's hard to find a good corollary for this movie. It's an extremely earnest opera starring a bunch of movie stars. What else is there like it? (Don't say Phantom of the Opera. That wouldn't be fair.)

To answer maybe the movie's biggest question, yes, Anne Hathaway gives quite the performance as the poor, doomed, trembling Fantine. There's a lot going on in her big "I Dreamed a Dream" number, Hathaway croaking and screeching it out with fluid pouring out of every hole in her face, but like the actress's jumble of big features, it somehow all comes together. Hooper gives Hathaway the appropriate context for all her theater-kid stuff, and she reigns supreme for much of the film as the story's most emotionally engaging presence. Which isn't to diminish what our hero Hugh Jackman is doing. Walking into the role like he was born for it (probably because he was), Jackman is more tuned-in and expressive than he's maybe ever been in the movies. Here is the ideal fit for both his old-school haminess and his modern movie-star gruffness. A wounded wolverine, a feral Peter Allen, whatever you want to call it, it plays like a dream. If they gave out Oscars for sheer effort, Jackman would win in a landslide. When I was discussing the movie with a friend afterward, we both wondered if this Les Miz would have happened at all had Jackman not been available. He's entirely integral to its success, appearing to love every minute of finally being able to marry his two professions in grandstanding fashion. Russell Crowe, then, has a lot to live up to, and let's just say that he tries his darnedest. Like everyone else, Crowe indicates nothing but commitment to the task at hand. He's not a natural singer, at times almost laughably so, but like the kid in the school play who sells the thing by sheer force of moxie, Crowe handily wins us over. That Javert is the show's most snooze-worthy character isn't his fault, after all.

As for the kids, Seyfried trills and warbles as sweetly and tinnily as she did in Mamma Mia!, a perfectly pious and bland Cosette. West End vet Samantha Barks, playing poor lovesick innkeepers' daughter Eponine, gets her important job done; she's a ringer brought in to nail "On My Own" before unceremoniously fading away, and she seems determinedly aware of her kamikaze duty. As the Y chromosome corner of the kids' love triangle, the angel-faced Eddie Redmayne uses his Cambridge choir tenor to great effect, bringing the house down, everyone in a teary heap in the basement, during the show's most affectingly written song, the mournful "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." He and Seyfried don't have much innate chemistry, but they sing-blast their way past that problem, and anyway they only get one real scene of courtship, so it's not a glaringly recurring issue. Plenty of strong support is offered by a cast of dozens, including Broadway heartthrob Aaron Tveit as rebellion leader Enjolras and little Daniel Huttlestone as precocious street urchin Gavroche. Only Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, playing the thieving Thénardiers, don't quite click with the picture. They seem to have walked in from another movie, one costumed by Tim Burton, and their comic relief shtick is an awkward sore thumb in an otherwise serious production. Still, they at least appear to be having a good time. Hooper has put together a strong company, and all seem completely sworn to the cause.

This is not a perfect film, of course. There are stretches that drag, particularly the middle section that leads up to the rebellion and a Return of the King-esque overly drawn-out ending. And, yes, there are parts where all the sturm und drang tips over into silliness. But for it earnestness, its vibrant and genuinely moving esprit de corps, and its simple and sweet messages about love and faith, Les Misérables is a heart-pounding success. Some may balk at all the sing-speak, others at the movie's complete ignorance of irony, but I suspect that if you've ever felt the goosebump chill of a big showstopping number burrowing its way into your soul, you'll find something to cheer for here. The film's opening day, on December 25, feels just right — after all, what could be more Christmasy than destroying cynicism with song?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jo

[jo]

A good friend sent me this review by a Les Miserables fan. It is so honest and so open-hearted -- it made me want to see the film even more so ( as if that is possible)!


dizzyspell.net/pop-culture/an-experience-with-les-miserables

I am not able to reproduce it here -- can our techie friends help? Thanks!

Jo

[birchie]

Dec 17, 2012 22:23:51 GMT -5 jo said:

A good friend sent me this review by a Les Miserables fan. It is so honest and so open-hearted -- it made me want to see the film even more so ( as if that is possible)!


dizzyspell.net/pop-culture/an-experience-with-les-miserables

I am not able to reproduce it here -- can our techie friends help? Thanks!

Jo

Not an exact duplicate but a close facsimile.
Caution: LOTS OF SPOILERS!
Sue

An Experience with ‘Les Misérables’

[/color]

Proceed with caution if you are allergic to SPOILERS.

Friday night, I was blessed with the opportunity to see Les Misérables before it officially hits theaters. (Elin, my gratitude regarding this is endless, truly; I don’t think I could ever say “thank you” enough. The entire evening is an evening I’ll never forget.) As I sit to write a “review,” though, I realize it is near impossible. The movie adaptation of this beloved musical is at the same time enormously scaled and compassionately intimate. How are you to “review” something that makes you feel so much? I’ve since decided to call this, my Les Misérables experience.

To say that I loved the film is an understatement.

If you knew anything and/or everything about the novel and/or musical, the film will enlighten you in a whole new way. Although I do agree that its accessibility will undoubtedly be difficult for some moviegoers, fans on the whole should be pleased to see new directions and interpretations of characters (for novel aficionados) and especially songs (for lovers of the musical). Yes, there are a lot of close-ups throughout the film; however, only one in particular irritated me (near the tail end of “Stars”) and, in fact, the tightness of the camera on its characters helped to reveal so much about them and their struggles. Few examples:

• Jean Valjean: In “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” Hugh Jackman goes through a colorful spectrum of emotions. He is angry and vindictive, mournful and confused, dedicated and determined. For Hugh, it isn’t a singing contest in the slightest; it’s about emoting as much as possible within a limited time frame, which practically means skinning himself alive to reveal his inner turmoil. As he shifts into “I am reaching but I fall,” he crumbles apart on screen, and I’d actually consider it an alluringly uncomfortable moment, as it feels like we’re exploiting someone’s privacy rather than a mere character’s. In a single song, he completes an entire character arc, reinventing himself by the end to become an honest man.

• Fantine: All the raves you’ve heard about her are spot-on. Over the years, I’d come to loathe “I Dreamed a Dream” because it was so overdone, so overplayed, so boring. Anne Hathaway’s take is the antithesis of the beautiful aria audiences are accustomed to. It is raw and energized, the long-shots on her face framed by oppressing darkness acting like a window to her soul. For the first time, I not only heard the lyrics but felt them. Her take on “and still I dream he comes to me” in particular really knocked the wind out of me, her wistfulness infectious as much as it is agonizing.

• Enjolras: Oftentimes, it seems as if Enjolras is played as an unfairly one-dimensional character. He’s the steadfast chief of the revolutionaries, fearless, brave, strong, sure… but he was also a young student, passionate but a little aimless in his efforts. Aaron Tveit plays Enjolras like a real person, fiercely focused on his cause yet balancing it with an edge of understandable vulnerability. He is not a ruthless leader, but an empathetic one. While “Red & Black” might have emphasized his commitment to Patria, that vulnerability is on full display when hearing the news of his barricade being the last to stand. Reasonable close-ups reign over many of the characters in the film, and Aaron utilizes his opportunities magnificently, conveying compassion for his people through both courage and regret.

• Javert: Similar to Enjolras, Javert can often feel as flat as cardboard. Relentlessly chasing a man for years can make one wonder whether or not he has better things to do; however, Russell Crowe – especially near the end – managed to convey the influence of his moral compass. During the instrumental “Bring Him Home,” Javert executes a single gesture that rightens his righteousness. With his previous code of judgement thwarted, you see his face break as he looses grip of what “justice” means, serving as a catalyst (along with Valjean letting him go free) to his self-determined fate.

(Overall, there are a lot of acting choices in the film that – although maybe jarring upon first listen – I actually missed when revisiting the more traditional recordings of the songs. The film feels so full, each character daring you to fight, dream, hope, and/or love with them.)

Admittedly, my least favorite part of Les Misérables has always been the love story between Cosette and Marius (and don’t get me started on the “love triangle”). Especially in the musical, it’s compacted and difficult to reason with. Love at first sight is always tricky to pull off but is even more so when the story moves quickly with little time to spare for romance. I also have never really liked Marius much as a character, aside from “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” and his handkerchief-sniffing buffoonery within the novel. However, I loved both Cosette and Marius in this movie-musical adaptation. It’s not even that they had more screen time, but their presence was firmly rooted by quirks and details established by both actors and screenwriter.

• Marius: I meant Eddie Redmayne no ill wishes when I included him in my dream cast as Marius over one year ago, despite the character being one my least favorites of the story. On the contrary, I entrusted him to help breathe new life into Marius — which he did, thoroughly. In this film adaptation of the musical, Eddie makes inspired choices for the character (evident in singing choices, like “oh, my friends, my friends don’t ask me…”). He doesn’t seem like a lovesick puppy, devoid of any characterization outside of Cosette. At the barricade, he is driven by the revolutionary cause; he has one particular moment of near-sacrifice (borrowed from the novel) that cements his role as fully realized. And when it comes to the love story, his fumbling, awkward nature saves it from staleness.

• Cosette: On the opposite coin of Marius, I adore Cosette in the novel and yet never had much of a connection to her in the musical. To so many people – myself included – she sort of just exists. Amanda Seyfried does wondrous things with her faces when she sings, particularly when she’s confronting Valjean about his past during “In My Life,” touching his manacle scars from years of hard labor in Toulon. You feel her intrigue upon love at first glance, her confidence as a young woman upon the courtship with Marius, her struggle to understand her father, and every ounce of loss is knitted on her face in the finale. I was wary of Amanda’s casting the most, but she enhanced my love for Cosette.

• Eponine: I’ve never been much of a fan of Eponine (in the musical or novel), but Samantha Barks is a pretty special actress in her first film role. She deludes the audience from thinking she’s only a street urchin, letting her songs sell us on how she’s capable of – even desperate for – acceptance. It’s beyond love for her; she feels validated by Marius. I especially appreciated how she sang “A Little Fall of Rain,” turning it whisper-soft as if actually on the throes of death. When she never uttered that last “grow,” you truly felt the loss of her — not as a character, but as a young, unfortunate girl gone too soon.

Delightfully, unlike the various clips released on the web and shown on talk shows, the orchestrations are proudly on display in the film. The actors no longer sound like they’re verging on singing a capella; the score is huge and it soars throughout. There are some new instrumental twists that are chilling, used in soliloquies by both Valjean and Javert. In a way, the orchestration itself is its own character, consenting to movement with the actors.

But, here’s the thing: no form of art is without flaws. To expect otherwise would be expecting the world to bend to you. When critiquing someone else’s vision, you have to allow leeway for different interpretations. To walk into Les Misérables expecting everything – a direct stage adaptation, camera angles to your liking, “perfect” singing (whatever that means to you), more/less dialogue, for the singers to sound exactly like your favorite previous performers – is, ultimately, an excuse for tripe. You’re not going to get everything you want. You just aren’t. Trust me: go into the film with an open mind, having prepared yourself for the heightened reality expected from any musical (onstage or off), and submerge yourself in the timeless story.

In which I ramble about specific likes/dislikes:
Did I love everything? Of course not. I wish Grantaire’s verse in “Drink With Me” hadn’t been cut and that his hero worshipping of Enjolras remained in tact. There was one (yes, only one) Dutch angle that chafed my eyeballs, just before Valjean confesses his past to Marius. (I find myself fairly tolerant of angular shots, though, so your mileage may vary.) Although I thought Hugh’s take on “Who Am I?” was extraordinary, the cut to the courtroom seemed too sudden and anticlimactic. I kept hoping the visual of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” would open up more. And then there were the Thenardiers – two characters I already find vile – constantly interjecting when Valjean first offers to take Cosette away. They just had their moment with “Master of the House” and were about to have one while haggling for “darling Colette,” so I wish this poignant moment between Valjean and Cosette had remained unsullied from their prominence.

But for every one thing that might have bothered me, there were fifty choices that pleased me. From small things like Grantaire pronouncing it “Don Joo-ahn,” to medium-sized things like Enjolras knocking Javert out, to big things like Russell Crowe modifying Javert’s impetus for suicide. I loved “Turning” being truncated, and settling into sad gossip while women soak up young blood from the streets. I loved the inclusion of Catherine, Cosette’s doll (even if not mentioned by name). I loved the Elephant of the Bastille, and Gavroche finding his home there. I loved Enjolras’ death, a clever combination of the iconic stage visual and what was written by Victor Hugo himself. I loved the way Samantha Barks’ face lit up when she sang about Marius having found her in “On My Own.” I loved how truthfully disgusting the sewer scene was, and how Valjean and Marius literally looked as if they had spent a day at a spa with a mud facial by the time they emerged from its depths. I loved Valjean outsmarting the Thenardiers during “The Waltz of Treachery,” and especially the way Hugh delivered the line “it won’t take you too long to forget,” instantly recognizing their cons. I loved Isabelle Allen as young Cosette in that moment, shaking her head at the Thenardiers’ guilt tripping. I loved Daniel Huttlestone as the scrappy Gavroche, especially when delivering the letter to Valjean. I loved Hadley Fraser’s brief moment as a National Guard, in which you see a flash of pain or regret on his face, realizing the dismal fate of fellow young men he considered “foes.” On a related note, I loved that “you have no friends!” was cut, because the Les Amis de l’ABC clearly have plenty of “amis.” I love that “The Finale Battle” was actually terrifying, full of adrenaline and fear and making it seem all too real for the death of the students. I loved that the novel was incorporated into Fantine’s downfall, showing the loss of her locket and hair and teeth and body. I loved Fantine’s death, and the imagery of Cosette behind the curtain. I loved that Monsieur le Mayor’s factory was actually making jet beads (rosaries, it seemed — a nice touch). I loved Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop and that he took Valjean to salvation. I loved Valjean tapping Cosette’s nose in his final moments, permitting a rain shower to fall upon my face. I loved that “Do You Hear the People Sing?” took place at Lamarque’s funeral. I loved that the closing scene of Les Misérables gave me a certain feeling I’ve previously only experienced with two other movies: a mix of satisfaction over the completed journey and an immediate yearning to experience it all over again.

I realize Les Mis is not going to be for everyone. A sung-through musical with a barrage of sadness and some experimental filmmaking (like singing live on set) is not necessarily an easy sell to either critics or movie fans. But for those willing to believe in Tom Hooper’s vision, the movie-musical adaptation is a perfect holiday gift. Seeing it presented in this light, with actors reinventing their characters and a wide scope allowing for a better understanding of the environment at large, inspired me to love the story even more than I already did. Les Misérables has always been about and for the people, so I hope that it maintains its reputation of reaching out and moving others as much as it moved me.

Dec 17 • by Kristina
[/blockquote]





[/quote]

[jo]

Merci bien, Sue!

If all fans of the musical would have an open mind like this -- and do not mourn for what they have loved onstage but changed by Tom Hooper and his actors -- then we can all feel that this movie version will only serve to enrich the history of this, a most beloved musical

Jo

[birchie]

Dec 17, 2012 23:08:11 GMT -5 jo said:

Merci bien, Sue!

If all fans of the musical would have an open mind like this -- and do not mourn for what they have loved onstage but changed by Tom Hooper and his actors -- then we can all feel that this movie version will only serve to enrich the history of this, a most beloved musical

Jo

De rien! Or as my DIL would say de nada!
The bits I read were very realisticly related. I confess I didn't read all of it because I realized there were far more spoilers than I wanted at this stage. I know there are some at IMDB who want every minute detail but I still want to be dazzeled on Christmas day. I'm not one who really cares if I read some spoilers but when I started reading how detailed she was I decided I better not read it all.

OT: I was talking to my son last night about how I don't remember ever having that "I can't wait until Christmas" feeling before. Even as a kid I never had it. Our home was a 'you never know which way the wind is going to blow' type of environment so unless I was seeing my grandmother or some other favorite relative, Christmas wasn't much different than any other day. Soooooooo.....you can imagine my surprise at these anxious, can't wait feelings that are so similar to the feelings I see in my grandchildren this time of year!! Of course my son pointed out that my excited feelings still have nothing to do with Christmas, 8-) but I'm enjoying them anyway. Another reason to be grateful for Hugh! I confess that my feelings are quite heightened by the fact that it's not only Hugh, but Les Miserables which I have loved since I first read the book followed by loving the musical. So I'm just a giddy girl right now!!!
Sue

[ocjackie]

One week from right now, I'll be in the movie theater. I can't believe it's almost here >. I found a theater about 40 minutes from me that is having a showing at 10:00PM the night of the 24th. It just all depends upon the weather. But I know that when I'm sitting there watching "First Look", my :-*mind will wander to you guys, wishing this was something that we could all do together.

[birchie]

Dec 18, 2012 12:25:03 GMT -5 ocjackie said:

One week from right now, I'll be in the movie theater. I can't believe it's almost here >. I found a theater about 40 minutes from me that is having a showing at 10:00PM the night of the 24th. It just all depends upon the weather. But I know that when I'm sitting there watching "First Look", my :-*mind will wander to you guys, wishing this was something that we could all do together.

Lucky! I wish there was a theater in my area showing it on the 24th!
Sue

[birchie]

A video review from Richard Roeper, one of my old stand-bys:
youtu.be/0dEiT1fsYoo
The only one he didn't single out was Eddie. He seemed to like everything and thinks it will garner "multiple Oscar nominations".
Sue

[jo]

On the other hand, another negative review from a Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critic" ( from The Village Voice) --

www.villagevoice.com/2012-12-19/film/les-mis-eacute-rables-doesn-t-dream-daringly/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Les Misérables Doesn't Dream Daringly

The Follies of 1832

Comments (0) By Scott Foundas Wednesday, Dec 19 2012


You can hear the people sing—really hear them—in the long-gestating screen version of that Broadway juggernaut Les Misérables. Countering the standard practice of having the actors in a film musical lip-synch their songs to prerecorded tracks (a/k/a "playback"), director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) insisted that all of the singing in his Les Mis happen live on the set, in the moment, with hidden earpieces allowing the actors to hear the orchestrations. The result is a movie musical unlike any you've heard before: Real voices emerge in real time, complete with assorted tremors, gasps for breath and other "imperfections" of the sort typically smoothed away in the studio. The quality of the sound recording is exceptional, too, as crisp as in the best concert films and live albums. Inevitably, you wonder what the likes of My Fair Lady, West Side Story, and The King and I would have sounded like if they'd been made this way, and without the reassuring soprano of Marni Nixon emanating from their leading ladies.


The live singing is but one part of Hooper's concerted effort to inject grit and verisimilitude into Les Mis—a lofty strategy that has become folly by late in the film, when the proletarian hero Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) sloshes through the sewers of Paris with the body of the wounded revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne) slung across his mighty shoulders, both men caked in human excrement. For the more Hooper tries—and oh, how he tries, ratcheting the filth amp to 11 and shooting almost everything with an arsenal of wide-angled, handheld cameras—the more the moist-eyed storybook romanticism of the source material proves resilient to his efforts.

It's doubtful, after all, that realism—or any semblance of it—is what audiences were seeking when they turned British über-producer Cameron Mackintosh's 1985 stage production into one of the biggest of all musical-theater blockbusters. Liberally inspired by Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables, the musical first entered the world as a French-language concept album by composers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg—and a concept album it very much remains. Hugo's panoramic study of the underclasses between the end of the French Revolution and the failed Paris uprisings of 1832 is here boiled down to a series of noble peasant heroes, cardboard villains, and star-crossed lovers belting out sound-alike anthems about the resilience of the human spirit. Developed by Mackintosh into a full-scale English-language production that premiered on London's West End in 1985 (where it is still running), Les Mis arrived in New York two years later, on the heels of the Mackintosh-produced Cats and just ahead of his Phantom of the Opera—the "British Invasion" trifecta that, at a low ebb for original American musicals, revitalized Broadway as a tourist mecca.

On stage, Les Mis has about as much to do with Hugo as Rent has to do with Puccini, but it has undeniable kitsch appeal, with its own literal pièce de résistance—an enormous rotating barricade—in lieu of Phantom's plummeting chandelier. On screen, there are fewer pleasures, though the opening moments are undeniably impressive in an old-fashioned, epic-monolithic way, as the camera drifts up from underwater to reveal Valjean and a chain gang of prisoners hauling an enormous ship into port under the crash of waves and the glower of the police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). Later, when a paroled Valjean jumps bail and flees through a snow-capped mountain expanse (actually Gourdon, in the South of France), the film exudes a wide-open physical grandeur not often seen in musicals—save for the few, like Fiddler on the Roof, shot on real locations instead of studio sets. There are a handful of other show-stopping moments along the way, though I'm not sure if the most discussed of them—Anne Hathaway's rendition of the tortured ballad "I Dreamed a Dream"—stops the show for the right reasons. The impassioned lament of Fantine, a fired factory worker forced into prostitution to support her illegitimate daughter, "I Dreamed a Dream" is already emotional pornography of the first order, made more so by Hathaway's borderline hysterical interpretation, all bulging eyes and hyperventilation, as if Hooper were shouting "More! More!" into her earpiece. Is this realism or the precursor to spontaneous combustion?

Yet it's hard to place too much fault on the direction of a movie that feels less like an exercise in filmmaking than in careful brand management. Once upon a time, directors entrusted with bringing some popular work of theater or literature to the screen were allowed to be creative, to reshape and adapt as they saw fit. And the audiences that lined up for Cabaret and The Godfather and The Exorcist instinctively understood that they wouldn't be seeing a scene-for-scene, page-for-page translation of the source.

But in today's Hollywood, where "pre-awareness" reigns supreme and the rights-holders of underlying properties retain ever more say in the adaptation process, writers and directors are increasingly reduced to the level of corporate lackeys. Occasionally, a filmmaker will still be given major leeway to reinvent a well-known character or franchise (as Christopher Nolan was for his Batman films), but more often—whether it's Twilight or The Hunger Games or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo—the clear mandate is to cater to the base, and Les Mis is no exception. Try as Hooper might to make the movie his own, the only real changes he has been allowed are cosmetic and stylistic, and even smeared in shit, Boublil and Schönberg's gleaming icons cannot be dulled. The dream lives, but this movie remains in chains.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I wonder how a critic like this one ( from the Village Voice) would have made the film, if they had the chance to be a filmmaker

Maybe put the characters in modern clothes, crying " Occupy!!"

Jo

[jo]

Thumbs Up from AICN ( Ain't It Cool News) >

www.aintitcool.com/node/60079

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nordling Says Tom Hooper's LES MISERABLES Is A Passionate Adaptation Of The Beloved Play!

Published at: Dec 19, 2012 4:46:48 PM CST




Nordling here.

Disclaimer – I have not seen the stage version of LES MISERABLES. I’ve read Victor Hugo’s novel, but it’s been many years. People out there who are sticklers to the source material, both stage play or book – fair warning. LES MISERABLES the stage play is much beloved, and those who are married to it may find the movie, at the very least, mildly disconcerting.

That’s because Tom Hooper isn’t interested in simply reenacting the play. Hooper has remembered something essential that, I feel, too many directors turning stage musicals into movies have forgotten – that musicals have to work as a movie first, with the appropriate scale, intimacy, and immediacy. Films like RENT try too hard to reenact the stage show when a wider, more generous vision is required. Belting out a song to the back rows of a stage production is quite different than singing a song onscreen. Onscreen, the effect is immediate, and the rapport with the audience is instant. We are there when Anne Hathaway sings “I Dreamed A Dream” and we share in her woes. On stage, there is a literal and figurative distance to the goings-on, and so much of the emotion is overplayed just to make it to the back of the theater.

LES MISERABLES dispenses with the formalities. This is big, bold entertainment, and after seeing it like this I’m not sure I would enjoy the distance of the stage play. There are moments in LES MISERABLES that are full of emotion and heartbreak – Tom Hooper, instead of recording the music and singing in post-production, wisely has the actors perform and sing in front of the camera, and the result is something far more cinematic and meaningful. Hearing “I Dreamed A Dream” on stage is one thing, but here we are thrust into Fantine’s (Anne Hathaway) complete and utter despair, and in one take and three minutes Hathaway gives probably the best performance of her career. This is a song about the acceptance of hell, and Hathaway holds nothing back. It is a raw, passionate moment.

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is released on parole after years of hard labor, sentenced because he stole a loaf of bread. Javert (Russell Crowe) reminds Valjean that he will always be a criminal, and if Valjean slips once, or fails to report his parole, Javert will be there to pursue him. One night Valjean comes to a monastery, and in a fit of rage and desperation steals their silver. However, when he is caught, the Bishop (Colm Wilkinson) refuses to indict Valjean. Breaking his parole, Valjean vows to use his new money and his life for good.

When Valjean fails to save Fantine, one of his factory employees, from despair, prostitution, and death, he decides to give the best life he can to her daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen as a child, Amanda Seyfried as a young adult), who is being held at the Thenardiers’ (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) house of ill repute. For years, Valjean and Cosette are in hiding from the cruel Javert, but when Cosette falls in love with the young rebel Marius (Eddie Redmayne), Valjean realizes that his life of running from Javert is coming to an end. As for Javert, he will do everything in his power to bring Jean Valjean to justice, and to stop the rebellion brewing in Paris’ streets.

Hugh Jackman is at his pinnacle playing Jean Valjean – finally he has found a character that encompasses all of his considerable talents. Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne are also terrific, with wonderful singing voices and the passion to go along with them. But Hathaway is the real revelation in LES MISERABLES – her short screen time makes an impact through the entire movie. As for Russell Crowe, his singing voice is a bit abrasive in comparison to the other talent on display, and while his performance works, his singing is jarring at times. But again, it adds to the immediacy of Tom Hooper’s work adapting the play. Because Hooper is making a movie and not a stage musical, Crowe’s rock and roll voice works for the most part. Jackman has had years of stage experience and Crowe simply can’t compete with that – instead, Crowe’s voice is the discordant note that marks him as the villain of the piece. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter bring much needed levity to the sometimes dire tone of the movie. Samantha Barks as Eponine, the woman who pines for Marius as he becomes smitten with Cosette, is also very good – her voice is lovely and rich.

There is very little spoken dialogue in LES MISERABLES, and there are moments that may remind more savvy audiences of the parody in SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT. Those who don’t enjoy musicals in general certainly won’t be swayed by LES MISERABLES. It makes no apologies for wearing its emotions on its sleeve. But I’ve always admired musicals. I especially love musicals that are more cinematic than stagy – like the Busby Berkeley musicals of old, LES MISERABLES remembers that the vast playground that is the cinema screen is far less limiting than the stage, and Tom Hooper has stayed loyal to the source and yet has made it seem new and real in a way that the stage could not hope to achieve. For fans of the stage play, the movie may be too immediate – the singing is definitely rawer and less polished, but the trade-off for that is that the performances feel so much more genuine because of it. The emotion on display here strikes directly at the audience’s soul. This is no sterile adaptation of the stage play – LES MISERABLES is passionate and true.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


What an irony -- Rotten Tomatoes will have to post this as a really FRESH review ;D...A very favorable review coming from arguably the most widely-read fanboy site, whose readers worship the antithesis of old-fashioned movie musicals!

Hey, Hugh is in the right place -- greatly admired by both fanboys and musicals lovers


Jo

[jo]

A different kind of favorable review - 4 of 5 stars - but looks at the reasons in a different way!

It's the closeups!

www.vancouversun.com/Review+Miserables+saved+from+sinking+Hugh+Jackman/7728886/story.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Review: Les Miserables saved from sinking by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe

Film avoids melancholy with intimate cinematography and strong cast

By Katherine Monk, Postmedia News December 20, 2012 4:03 PM

Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption.


Les Misérables

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried

Directed by: Tom Hooper

Running time: 158 minutes

Parental Guidance: PG, violence, sexually suggestive scenes

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The idea of a nearly three-hour movie where every single line of dialogue is offered up in song is exhausting. So is the notion of another take on Les Misérables, the Broadway phenomenon that hogged the pop culture spotlight for more than a decade and still failed to impress upon Americans their democratic debt to the French.

Yet, 32 years after Cosette’s windblown image and a waving tricolour became synonymous with Victor Hugo’s story of the June Rebellion and its victims, director Tom Hooper and the Hollywood Studios have created a filmed version of Les Mis that offers something the stage musical could not: close-ups.

This obvious advantage of the cinematic form might not seem all that important for people who’ve already latched on to the bosom of Liberty leading the people, and embraced Les Mis as a music-first experience – but one should never underestimate the importance of a face that stretches 20 metres across a giant silver screen.

Humans are programmed to react to the tiniest change in facial musculature, allowing screen actors to access a whole other tool chest in their bid to animate character, and this advantage was clearly not lost on Hooper, who gives every faux urchin, enchantress, revolutionary and lawman a chance to showcase his or her thespian stuff.

Successfully creating an entire world before the lens, Hooper (The King’s Speech) develops a specific camera language to help him articulate such abstracts as mood, motivation and historical context.

Framing his characters in sooty black shadows – frequently dousing their faces with rain as they gaze heavenward for an explanation for their continuing misery, Hooper pulls us into an intimate space with this tragic ensemble.

And in case you thought this might have some streak of upbeat brightness, let me be the first to pummel that optimism out of you before the emotional abuse begins in earnest.

This is a dark journey from start to finish as we follow the heartbreaking saga of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman). A good man who was forced to steal a loaf of bread to save his sister’s child at the height of revolutionary famine, Valjean is still a prisoner when we first meet him in the film’s opening scene hauling a square-rigger into dry dock alongside the other hard labourers.

“Look down…” they sing as the ever-vigilant guard Javert (Russell Crowe) eyes them like a bitter shepherd. As the slave chorus chants, Hooper alternates between close-ups of our two opposing heroes.

On one side we have the gnarled grimace of Valjean, a man who feels abandoned by everyone now that he’s spent the best years of his life as a convict. On the other, we have the symmetrical and stoic features of Javert, a man who finds a genuine sense of purpose in stalking Valjean with an edge of self-righteous compulsion.

They are both angry reflections of the other, destined to self-destruct, until the softening influence of a woman intervenes to alter both their fates.

Fantine (Anne Hathaway) is a virtuous woman, but she was exploited by her first love and abandoned with her daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried).

Shortly after we meet the moon-faced martyr in act one, she dies a horrific death – but not before her altruism forever melts the heart of Valjean, or the first strains of an echoing musical motif worms its way into your subconscious.

Yes, Fantine dreamed a dream — and for the next 90 minutes, it spirals into a feverish nightmare of narrative as her daughter is abused by a couple of colourful grifters (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), adopted by the transformed Valjean, courted by a student-turned-revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne) and finally released into love’s arms in the final scene.

These interpersonal bits and pieces of Hugo’s brilliant, bulky novel reach the screen with value-added cinematic oomph thanks to those tightly framed images that convey cartloads of emotion with every quivering lip.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the whole political framework of Les Misérables, a book that dared look at post-Revolution France with a damning critical eye. Unable to condense a century worth of social history into a hummable verse, neither the musical nor the movie are able to animate the story of the 1832 June Rebellion, or its significance to the evolution of the democratic ideal.

Sure, we get a lot of handsome young men rising up in heroic profile to stand atop barricades chanting slogans of social justice and freedom. But their sacrifice never finds an emotional anchor of meaning.

In some ways, the whole thing feels like an endless and largely monotonous parade of rotting pomp and tragic circumstance. All that singing could be interpreted as tuneful whining and whingeing, and no matter how catchy the tune, it’s still taxing to the psyche to watch such self-indulgent, unrelenting unhappiness played for spectacle.

What saves Hooper’s hulking vessel from sinking in a contrived sea of melancholy are the solid performances from every player onscreen.

Jackman is the oak-like main mast who gives the ship its emotional engine. Not only is his voice up to the challenge of the score, his thespian talent fills every crevice of the screen and makes you weep with empathy.

Crowe’s gruff vocals provide the perfect counterpoint to Jackman’s pristine notes, ensuring a driving masculine dynamic at all times, and Seyfried’s soprano rings high and clear – offering an aural glimmer of love and hope.

Hathaway is the problematic variable because her droopy screen presence and goody-two-shoes persona could have rendered Fantine a mopey sop. Yet, even she prevails over the repetitive score to belt out a few killer verses.

Like the movie as a whole, these runs are dripping with sentiment — much of it glazed and over-romanticized to exaggerate the noble cause of social justice, but thanks to Jackman and those close-ups, Hooper gives Les Misérables a real sense of soul and turns a potential dog into a fluffy French poodle with a brain as well as a fancy haircut.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jo

[jo]

A review that pays tribute to Hugh Jackman's anchor performance! >

www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/movie-review-les-miserables-article-1.1224460

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

review: ‘Les Misérables’

Jackman makes this mammoth movie musical worth all the Hugh and cry
Comments (2)
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
4 of 5 stars

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 2:22
Adaptation of the stage musical set in 19th-century France. Director: Tom Hooper (2:37)..
Film Info: PG-13: Sexuality, violence. Opens Christmas Day at area theaters..
.

Generally speaking, moviemaking is a formulaic endeavor — even if you’re working with the highest-caliber components. So let’s give Tom Hooper credit for breaking out of his safety zone in such bold fashion.

Just last year, Hooper’s reserved drama, “The King’s Speech,” earned a Best Picture Oscar. Next Tuesday, his extravagant “Les Misérables” will become a leading contender for the 2013 Academy Awards.

To be clear, this is an adaptation of the venerable stage musical, not the original Victor Hugo novel. Hooper has chosen to embrace the theatricality of his project — in which there is almost no spoken dialogue — with full enthusiasm.

After all, how many fans of Cameron Mackintosh’s long-running landmark are looking for tasteful restraint?

As every Times Square tourist knows, the story begins in 1815 France, where Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) vows to start a new life after years in prison.

Perpetually chased by the cruel Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), Valjean recreates himself as a God-fearing factory owner and mayor. He also promises the dying prostitute Fantine (Anne Hathaway) he will rescue her daughter, Cosette, from two grifters (Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, going all out as our comic relief).

Years later, the now-grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and Valjean move to Paris, but their lives are far from settled. Javert is on their trail, and Cosette has fallen in love with a revolutionary (Eddie Redmayne).

At 157 minutes, the film is overlong, but how else to pack in so many songs and stories? Fortunately, this sprawling epic is well-anchored. There cannot be a better big-screen showman than Jackman.

Valjean must be so many different men over the years, and the actor does an outstanding job in transforming himself repeatedly. Crowe, alas, is less successful. He is so outmatched by the musical requirements of his role, and imbues Javert with so little passion, one wonders why he was hired.

As for Hathaway, she devours the screen in her brief appearance, as if the picture were hers for the taking. Many will be impressed by this forceful approach, though others may detect a brash — and likely successful — Oscar grab. (If that assessment seems unfair, watch the film and ask yourself this: Do you genuinely see a weak and pitiful outcast, or do you see Anne Hathaway?)

The rest of the cast meshes together well, from the children (including Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche) to stage vets like Samantha Barks (who plays the lovesick Éponine).

Singing live on camera, the major players make the most of their anthemic moments. There are a few missed notes, but the songs elicit the emotions required. We gasp, we sigh, we cry.

Subtlety, in other words, is not a priority. The artificiality of the sets, the insistent closeups, the broadly choreographed showstoppers are all designed for maximum impact.

And because this outsized spectacle is tempered by Jackman’s humane complexity, it works. Who could blame Javert for following him to the ends of the earth?

[e-mail]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Valjean is truly the anchor and the main mast of the Les Miserables man of war!

Jo

[jo]

A third favorable review that also pays homage to the Jackman contribution, from a third location in North America ( the first one in this series was from Vancouver, followed by a NYC paper, and now this from Salt Lake City) --

www.deseretnews.com/article/865569211/Movie-review-Les-Miserables-soars-as-big-screen-musical.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Movie review: 'Les Miserables' soars as big-screen musical

By Blair Howell, For the Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Dec. 20 2012 5:21 p.m. MST


Opening Christmas Day, the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway’s “Les MisÉrables” is a landmark achievement in musicals.



Is it possible to contain enthusiasm so as to not oversell “Les Misérables”?

Sorry, but I can’t.

Opening Christmas Day, the big-screen adaptation of Broadway’s runaway hit is a landmark achievement in musicals. While there have been movie musical-comedies and musical-dramas aplenty, director Tom Hooper’s soaring film is arguably the first truly dramatic-musical.

Never before have actors sung live on set accompanied only by a piano with the orchestra and full-throttle vocal recordings added in post-production.

Rather than pre-recording the songs in the safety of a studio and lip-syncing while filming, the actors were able to focus entirely on the emotions of the scene. Even die-hard enthusiasts will find more meaning to “Les Misérables” and, with a few altered lyrics to heighten the drama, they will feel as if they are seeing the show anew.

Never before has there been so much advance buzz on a stage-to-film adaptation.

While certainly movie musicals have earned Academy Award honors, “Les Misérables” is a shoo-in: Best movie, best director and best actor Oscar nominations are likely, and Anne Hathaway, start writing your acceptance speech. Yes, the shiny-gold, bald-headed man is in the bag.

Never before has a film musical had such a breathtakingly talented vocal cast. With the exception of Russell Crowe as Javert.

Hathaway is magnificent. Rather than playing the martyr, she adds complexity to the role like none before her. Her fine singing and superb acting as Fantine absolutely destroys the audience. “I Dreamed a Dream,” paean of loss, is a high point. Or low point, considering the number of tears she will evoke.

Samantha Barks, who played the Éponine role both on the West End and in the PBS-broadcast 25th anniversary production, is stunningly perfect in “On My Own,” belting out her anguish for unrequited love. Broadway vet Aaron Tveit makes a powerful, charismatic Enjolras. And the big surprise is the vocal performance of Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy. Have Kleenex at the ready for his “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.”

Amanda Seyfried looks lovely and capably handles the role of Cossette. The child actors — Isabelle Allen as young Cosette and Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche — give memorable performances to complete the dynamic cast. With the exception of Russell Crowe.

The big-voiced Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean from the premiere London and Broadway productions, plays the Bishop of Digne. Reportedly, producer Cameron Mackintosh and composer Claude-Michel Schönberg make cameos, but we may have to wait for the DVD commentary to spot their appearances.

As the Thenardiers, cockney-accented (in France?) Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter add quirky humor, but their characterizations are appallingly derivative.

And finally, Hugh Jackman as Valjean. Hooper has said he wouldn’t have made the movie if Jackman didn’t exist. And the movie belongs to Jackman. After playing the roles of Wolverine on film and Peter Allen on Broadway, Jackman combines both his musical and dramatic talents to impress. No, completely bowl us over. Wholly in command of the movie, Jackman is most marvelous in his rendition of “What Have I Done?” and mines raw emotion in each line of lyric. The new composition to make a song Oscar-eligible, “Suddenly” sung by the star, will easily stand among the best of those nominated in the Academy’s history.

The director makes a bold choice to balance the large-scale scope of “Les Misérables.” Hooper’s extreme close-ups and uninterrupted takes for the musical numbers deepen the audience’s empathy and spiritual resonance — to the point of being emotionally draining — for each of the characters played by these actors. With the exception of Russell Crowe.

Parents should be aware that “Les Misérables” is with reason rated PG-13. The central element is a bloody rebellion for freedom, with prostitution of early 19th century French slums an essential factor to the storytelling. But there is no intent to be exploitative.

Cineastes will quibble, but movie musical fans will be enraptured. “Les Misérables” is beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting and masterfully produced. And this heart is full of love, Tom Hooper.

Content advisory: suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jo

[jo]

I don't mind exercising my keyboard further and using bandwith generously if a review cites Hugh's performance as key to the movie!

wlswarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/2012s-holiday-seasons-obvious-oscarbait.html

Some excerpts --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Basics: The latest cinematic version of Les Miserables may be an obvious grab for awards, but it is worth the accolades given the quality of this interpretation.


...Les Miserables is a film based upon the play based upon the novel and it is worth noting that while I have seen the play or read the book, I have seen film and filmed versions of the play. I have also reviewed one of the celebrated soundtracks for the play (that review is here!) and my wife’s enthusiasm for it has certainly made me excited for it. However, I intend to limit this review to the Tom Hooper-directed Les Miserables that seems this season’s most obvious Oscarbait.

Unlike Chicago (reviewed here!) from a few years ago, Les Miserables is a musical that is presented as a film with its own reality. This is not a “play on film” like Chicago was. The musical interludes are a way to present emotions, exposition, and create mood, as opposed to intentionally replicating a theatrical (play) event. And, while Les Miserables is obvious Oscarbait, it manages not to fall into the same problem as Mystic River (reviewed here!) where there is predictable greatness. While I am tempted to say that anything that features Anne Hathaway is stacking the casting deck, the truth is she has a more extensive cinematic resume of romantic comedies, as opposed to deep dramas (though the dramas she has been in have been ones that show her easily able to handle an incredible range and a wide variety of situations). Moreover, Hugh Jackman has had some real cinematic lemons, as have Sacha Baron Cohen . . . and Russell Crowe is frequently typecast and used for a very limited range of character. Fortunately, on Les Miserables, the cast is used extraordinarily well and, with the exception of Crowe, who is stiff in his performance as Javert, in ways that they are not frequently captured on film.

Les Miserables is a story of one man’s struggles and strife amid the backdrop of the French Revolution. Having stolen a loaf of bread to feed his family, Jean Valjean is imprisoned for the crime and his attempt to flee prosecution. When Valjean, on parole after nineteen years of hard time, steals from the local bishop, the Bishop vouches for him to the authorities and Valjean is given a second chance to live right. Valjean becomes a respected citizen, mayor, and factory owner after years of being on the outside. Working at one of his factories is Fantine, a young woman who has turned to prostitution on the side in order to feed her baby daughter. Rescued from Inspector Javert following a conflict at Valjean’s factory, Fantine dies of tuberculosis.

Despite Valjean exposing himself to Javert to prevent an innocent man from being accused of being Valjean and having Javert’s wrath taken out on him, Valjean strikes a deal with Javert. Valjean promises to return to Javert’s custody after he makes arrangements for Fantine’s daughter, Cosette. Valjean betrays Javert and takes Cosette on the run from the law. Years later, having raised Cosette as his own, revolution comes to France. Cosette finds herself embroiled in a love triangle with a revolutionary boy and Valjean has the chance to forgive Javert for a lifetime of pursuit when the revolutionaries are going to put Javert to death for being a spy.

Les Miserables is an epic and it is extraordinary. As a film, Les Miserables is presented by director Tom Hooper in a way that uses the medium exceptionally well. The locations are big and the sense of time passing is executed well on the actors, sets, and costumes. Keeping largely with the theatrical version, the cinematic Les Miserables includes comic relief in the form of the Thenardiers. While Madame Thenardier is well within the range or Helena Bonham Carter, her husband is portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen does an impressive job of being more restrained than in most of his other roles and while he makes the role work, this rendition of Les Miserables doies not actually need that entire subplot and set of characters. In fact, while plays like Les Miserables judiciously mix humor and drama to keep from being too heavy and to allow for sets to be changed, in this version of Les Miserables, the presence of the Thenardiers is more distracting (though they do add another viewpoint on the Revolution) than necessary.

Musically, Les Miserables is enjoyable, though my wife informs me the soundtrack is altered some to fit the ranges of the performers (most notably Hathaway). As one not tied to the original play or soundtrack, I have to say it all sounded wonderful. Jackman makes for an amazing Jean Valjean in his vocalizations and Samantha Barks is wrenching as Eponine. Les Miserables sounds wonderful with the vocal performances that do add additional depth to the characters.

Russell Crowe did not wow me as Javert. Javert is supposed to be obsessed and rigid in his determination to find Valjean and enforce law and order over any understanding of human emotions. Javert is a tragic character for his level of obsession, but Crowe plays him stiffly. Instead of being inhuman for his determination, Crowe presents Javert as robotic and he stands out next to how Anne Hathaway takes a bit role and fills it with hearthbreaking pathos or Jackman as Valjean, who is so good that he makes viewers forget how he ever growled his way through Wolverine. Even Amanda Seyfried is able to display uncommon range and emotion as Cosette that makes the character more than a simple love interest for Marius. Seyfried, Barks, Cohen, Hathaway and Jackman are so explosively dynamic that they shine so bright to make Crowe seem stiffer and blander by comparison.

Les Miserables is a cinematic musical that transcends its source material to use the film medium extraordinarily well. Hooper creates a distinct time, place and mood that feels appropriately epic. While “epic” is, by nature, long, great direction can keep such a film moving along. Unfortunately, Hooper misses some key marks – especially in keeping truer to the play by giving the Thenardiers their due – and the film feels long.

That said, Jean Valjean is presented as an intriguing and sufficiently deep character to invite the investment of time and energy in his journey. Les Miserables might be a long film telling a great story with interesting characters, released at the time of year as appropriate to get most of the people involved nominated for big awards, but it is worth it and enjoyable, even when it is heartbreaking for the way it portrays the depth of human suffering.

8.5/10


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jo

[jo]

The New York Post weighs in --

www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/les_miserables_may_cause_weeping_Y3Ra6snZsgWBxC0SPhW5vJ

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Les Misérables' is revolutionary
By LOU LUMENICK
Last Updated: 11:09 PM, December 20, 2012
Posted: 1:52 PM, December 20, 2012

Lou Lumenick
Blog: Movies

MOVIE REVIEW

LES MISÉRABLES
Shameless crowd-pleaser. Running time: 158 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence including sexual assault). Opens Tuesday (12/25) at the Ziegfeld, Empire, Battery Park, others.

3 of 4 stars



I love musicals, always have — but my feelings about Tom Hooper’s bombastic version of the long-running stage hit “Les Misérables’’ had me thinking about the opening lines of another epic set in Paris, albeit a century earlier.

The best of times here include a perfectly cast Hugh Jackman, a veteran song-and-dance man onstage, in his greatest screen performance as the persecuted Jean Valjean.

Anne Hathaway is even better as the doomed Fantine, who will tear your heart out with her film-stopping rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,’’ which is enough to make anyone forget Susan Boyle (if they haven’t already).

It’s worth seeing the movie for Hathaway alone.

It’s the worst of times, though, when Hooper repeatedly traps his stars in tight close-ups during the musical numbers — practically shoving the camera down the singers’ tonsils.

This is particularly scary in the case of Russell Crowe, whose husky, rock-style baritone is far more frightening than his character, the relentless Inspector Javert, is supposed to be.

Hooper did a fine, disciplined job directing the Oscar-winning “The King’s Speech.’’

But for some reason he decided he needed to turn the volume up to 12 — and leave it there — for William Nicholson’s subtlety-free adaptation of the musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel.

This works, sometimes astoundingly well, for much of the movie’s first hour, as prisoner Valjean (an emaciated Jackman) escapes, in 1815, after 14 years of hard labor for stealing a crust of bread.

After singing his heart out on a mountaintop for some reason — hey, it’s a musical! — Valjean, with the help of a sympathetic priest, begins a new life under the first of several assumed identities.

Years later, former prison guard Javert shows up and recognizes Valjean, who’s become mayor of a small town.

Just as Javert is about to collar him, another man the authorities mistakenly believe is Valjean is arrested. The conscience-stricken Valjean admits his ruse to avoid sending an innocent man to the gallows.

Because of his confession, Valjean is tragically powerless to save former employee Fantine, who’s been forced into a life of prostitution and worse. She dies of tuberculosis, leaving her little girl Cosette (Isabelle Allen) an orphan.

Valjean flees from Javert, and after a decade in hiding, is forced to emerge again to save the now-grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), who’s been adopted by a pair of small-time Parisian swindlers, the Thénadiers. They’re played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, who provide much-needed comic relief in what amounts to a variation on their roles in “Sweeney Todd.’’

By this point, “Les Misérables’’ has become far less compelling.

It’s hard to get terribly excited about Cosette’s romance with student rebel Marius (Eddie Redmayne, an unexpectedly wonderful singer), who’s fancied by the Thénadiers’ coddled daughter Eponine (Samantha Barks, who sings rings around Seyfried).

The movie climaxes with the anti-monarchist Paris uprising of 1832 — but there’s no political context whatsoever to explain exactly what’s at stake.

It all comes off as a picturesque 19th-century version of Occupy Wall Street — except with the authorities using real bullets.

By this point (unlike in Victor Hugo’s novel), the ubiquitous Javert’s unending pursuit of Valjean has become almost as monotonous as Crowe’s singing.

When the fighting begins, Cooper finally pulls the camera back for some of the big crowd shots and shows off the impressive period detail — but far too much of the movie is shot in stultifying close-ups.

And exactly what is the point of filming the numbers live — instead of the usual practice of having actors sing to playback — if you’re going to Cuisinart many of the songs in MTV-style editing?

The utter lack of modulation — and the near-complete absence of spoken dialogue, just like onstage — makes for pretty wearying viewing as the movie works its way into its third hour.

“Les Misérables’’ finally rallies for a really wow finish — I won’t spoil it, but many around me at the screening, including my wife, were weeping.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess tears are the final arbiter on whether the movie is a success or not

Jo

[mamaleh]

Thanks for all those postings, Jo. I had to chuckle at the "first dramatic musical" reference. I guess SHOWBOAT, WEST SIDE STORY, PORGY AND BESS, CRY FOR US ALL, MISS SAIGON, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, etc., were all bundles of laughs.

And gee, Blair--tell us how you really feel about Russell Crowe. Personally, I think he's getting a bad rap from some critics. Javert is supposed to be divorced from feelings; he's written to be a staunch defender of the law and nothing else.

And the NY Post review makes it sound as though Valjean adopts Cosette as an adult, LOL.

With the opening fairly imminent, the excitement is building!

Ellen