Les Miserables (2012)

Released in 2012 under the direction of Tom Hooper on a budget of  $61 million with distribution from Universal Studios; "Les Miserables" is the ambitious film adaptation of the huge long running Broadway musical based off the novel by Victor Hugo of the same name. Previous film adaptations were more based on the original book and were straight-forward dramas, one such drama included an adaptation from 1998 that starred Geoffrey Rush, Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes. But the adaptation most people are familiar with the 1985 Broadway musical adaptation by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil with help from the mastermind producer behind some of the longest-running Broadway shows like "Phantom of the Opera," "Miss Saigon" and "Cats;" Cameron Mackintosh. Now Tom Hooper is a name you all may be familiar with as he received an Academy Award back in 2010 for the feel good British drama "The King's Speech," though before that time, his credentials as a director showed rather minor results since he had directed certain television miniseries or episodes for BBC. With those credentials, one would question why Mr. Hooper was chosen to direct this widely beloved musical when it's clear he has no experience with musicals? We're going to see whether or not he'd done right or if he should have stuck to costume dramas.

Plot: 1815, France. Prisoner 24601/Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) after 19 years of prison for the crime of stealing bread for his sister's child, has finally been placed on parole by Javert (Russell Crowe) but Valjean's yellow-tick-of-leave identifies him as a convict, making finding work difficult as the cruelties of the world weigh him down. One night, he is warmly welcomed into the house of a Bishop (Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean from Broadway) where he is fed and given a place to sleep, but Valjean, bitter at the world, steals his silverware and is caught by the local police. To his surprise, the Bishop lies to the police by saying he gave them to Valjean, even giving him silver candlesticks that "he left in such a hurry he forgot to take the best." Valjean, shocked and moved that someone treated him with love and respect and appalled at himself for stooping so low, decides to escape his parole, change his name and begin a new life. You got all that? Because that's only the prologue.

Cut to eight years later, Valjean is now the town mayor and owner of a crucifix factory. One of the employees Fantine (Anne Hathaway) is discovered to have a daughter that is being cared for by innkeepers and they demand more money for her care. This discovery gets her fired from the factory, forcing Fantine to sell her locket, hair teeth and body to raise money to support her daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen). When she has a run-in with Javert, Valjean arrives and hears her plight, realizing he is partly responsible for making her life miserable, he takes her to a hospital and swears to take Cosette to her. As that goes on, Javert informs Valjean that someone has been mistaken for the escaped prisoner 42601, unable to cope with the guilt of sending an innocent man to prison, Valjean tells the truth to a court that believes he's not feeling well, as he runs off to the hospital to be with a dying Fantine, promising through song to find and raise Cosette. As she dies, Javert arrives and, although Valjean promises to return to prison after three days, tries to stab him with a sword, which only leads to Valjean escaping to the inn owned by the Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter who perform one of my favorite songs in the musical) to purchase the abused and poorly cared for Cosette from them. 

Nine years later, there is unrest in Paris (as usual) as these students decide to organize a revolution with the death of Lamarque (a French dude which apparently seemed to care about poor people in this musical). Enjolras (Aaron Tveit) and Marius (Eddie Redmayne) are the only students that you'll bother to remember their names unless you're a total die-hard Le Mis fan. Marius catches sight of Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and is instantly infatuated with her. Javert just so happens to also be working in Paris now, Jean Valjean tries to hide Cosette from the world, Eponine (Samantha Banks), the daughter of the Thenardiers, is in love with Marius but he doesn't seem to take notice, Enjolras rallies the people of France to revolt as everyone gets together to sing "One More Day." 

And that's Act 1. If you want to see what happens in act 2, see the movie. Heads up though, this movie is so cruel, it lacks an intermission. I have seen a high school performance of this musical with an old high school classmate I talked to a few times named Andrew Garret who played Valjean, who did so good a performance, that, to me, only HE is Valjean. Back then, the musical left me cold, even today with this film adaptation, I'm still cold towards it. Not so much that it's bad, but because it's so over-blown and huge that, it feels more appropriate for the stage. To get down to it, a musical version of Les Miserables was a nifty idea that worked on Broadway, but to see it in theaters as a major film adaptation, it's rather disappointing and the scale doesn't really feel any bigger than your imagination allowed you to create for you when you saw it on stage. But plotwise, I think describing the prologue and Act 1 should be enough to give you an impression of what you're in for if you choose to see this movie. 

Characters:

Hugh Jackman: People have been saying that he's the best Valjean, personally, nothing will beat Colm Wilkinson or Andrew Garret in my mind. His singing voice isn't terrible, his background in theatre really pays off and he's a good performer, but that's really all I see him as in this movie, is a performer, not the character. Yet people are saying he deserves an Oscar, I imagine those people who say that, haven't seen the stage version. I also have to say, I wasn't too pleased of Jackman's take of "Bring Him Home," go on YouTube and watch Colm Wilkinson's 10th Anniversary performance, THAT is an amazing performance. 

Russell Crowe: One word to describe his performance: stiff. When he arrives in the movie, he sounds as if he is putting too much effort into his singing performance. Eventually, you get used to it and you warm up to his performance, especially when he performs "Stars," after that, I just grew into it and began to care. strange to consider that he used to be in a band and yet when he acting with his face and body, he makes it work.

Anne Hathaway: the second best singer in this movie. All the things you heard about Anne Hathaway deserving an Academy Award is indeed true. On the stage, the many performers who play Fantine, despite all the suffering they go through, somehow still belt out these big numbers from them. Anne Hathaway's performance is one of suffering, one of depression, one of surrender. She is forced to stoop this low just to pay for her daughter's upkeep, she is utterly devastated, also, unlike the stage adaptations I've seen, this was the first time I actually saw Fantine getting her hair cut off and getting her teeth removed. This pulls you into her suffering even further and successfully pulls at your heartstrings.

Amanda Seyfried: No doubt, the worst singer in this movie. Unlike Russell Crowe who grows on you, once she begins to sing "In my Life" it felt like listening to nails on a chalkboard. It's clear to me she wasn't picked for her singing voice, she was picked to act for the camera. She does that part well, the singing part, not so much. I honestly would have preferred Lea Michelle- no actually I take that back. Hell, if they really wanted a competent performer, just go to West End and firkin hire somebody to play Cossette, come on! Give them a chance to break out from theatre into film!

Eddie Raymane: Just like Amanda Seyfried, I doubt he was picked for his singing. He does manage to perform "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" rather well emotionally, but I personally couldn't stand him. But I guess I would rather prefer him over Nick Jonas any day, no actually I take that back, I would rather it be Drake Bell. (looks around expecting people to throw things at me) huh, I guess you guys wouldn't care either. 

Samantha Banks: I found out this girl actually played Eponine for the 25th Anniversary Concert and this this is her first film acting credit. She does a pretty good job to say the least and her singing voice makes her the third best singer in this movie. She does manage to combine acting with her lovely singing voice swimmingly, but her final scene is, well, pretty goofy to say the least  (I won't spoil it, but when you see it, you'll just shake your head) but regardless she gives a fine performance.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter: You will never have a dull moment when these two appear on the screen. They are so nasty and yet so entertaining to watch. While I was rather annoyed by the movie's constant edits to show them pick-pocketing their customers, despite them seeming to not even notice these innkeepers robbing them blind. Regardless, their singing was good, but their costuming suggested that Tim Burton was visiting that weekend on the set, though it'd be fitting considering that Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter both were in "Sweeney Todd and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

Production: Am I the only one who thinks the set design looked more fake than the props and sets you would see on stage? The second half of the film really looks like they filmed everything on a set and not in an actual town. The parts that actually look like a town, all CGI and not really good CGI to be honest. It really stands out and looks unfinished. Also, for a movie that's major marketing is focused on the actors singling live to the cameras instead of lip-synching to the camera as was done for the last 80 years. But honestly, I felt this didn't add anything except allowing actors to cry while singing the song. Most of the musical performances are single shot takes and the performers are just walking round while singing. Even Anne Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream" is a whopping 4 shots, one shot is pretty much just holding on her as she sings and cries through the song. While her performance is still good, I would have at least liked to have seen maybe a flashback of this guy who took her virginity, friggin anything! This must have been the easiest editing job since it's comprised of long takes and cutting away to different angles of the same action. The music itself is superb, as someone who is an open opera fan but also a closeted fan of musicals, I find the music to be creative and catchy. I have to respect how the musical finds way to reuse it's own music tunes and reworks them for other songs. For example, if you listen carefully, if you listen to "Valjean Forgiven" and then listen to "Empty Chairs/Empty Tables" you might hear a similarity. A more blatant and obvious example of this repetition of utilizing previous music throughout the musical is "Look Down," which is heard at the beginning, heard again when the scene shifts to Paris then once again when Valjean is begging to Javert to let him save Marius and he begs for him to "Look down, Javert, he's standing in his grave!" It's a very clever way to reuse music you heard previously used to show the complexity of the characters and what they are going through. The reason I say this now, is because the song they wrote for the movie, "Suddenly," it has not purpose in being here. It feels really out of place and it's pretty much just 3-4 minutes of Valjean saying "Hey! I'm a daddy now! How about that?" it's the most forgettable song of the movie and it doesn't borrow any previous tunes from the musical, hence why it feels out of place.

Bottom Line: For a musical that is supposed to be ground-breaking, I barely felt the ground shift at all. The only thing this movie has done is allow actors to combine their acting ability and perform with their faces while they sing instead of having to lip-synch to what they sung to months before when they had recorded. For some of the actors, they managed to pull off the acting and singing part off pretty well, other times, it was more like the actors did better in the acting department than in the singing department. Maybe because I've seen the musical, I had this unrealistic sense of expectation for this movie to follow in the same vein. I should have been more kind and realized that this movie was trying to do it's own thing but still retain what the fans love about "Les Miserables." The acting and direction is competent and the music is still great to listen to, so much so that, I found myself singing along in the theater near the end when they sung "One Day More," thankfully for me, it caused the other audience members to do the same so I didn't feel too bad about singing along. Would I see it again? Yeah, but only when it comes to DVD or Blu Ray or OnDemand. I honestly would recommend you go on Youtube and watch the 10th Anniversary or the 25th Anniversary Concert, the actors in that are also singing live to cameras who film their performance uninterrupted. Those performances are excellent (though why they had Nick Jonas as Marius for the 25th Anniversary, I don't know) and while this movie is great to see in the movie theaters, I would recommend you see the stage version some time in your life.

Final Rating: 3/5

Until next time, I'll keep the fires stoked for the next time we burn through celluloid.