Viewed in
2012
Formats
Movie theater.
Premise
Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway star in the film adaption to the famous musical.
Loved
Samantha Barks, Anne Hathaway, music.
Liked
Most of the cast and performances.
Disliked
Shot selection.
Thoughts
Growing up listening to the original Broadway cast soundtrack throughout high school choir, it was impossible for me not to like this movie.
Going in, I expected to cry. A lot. And the cast delivered in spades. Hugh Jackman was very strong as Jean Valjean. As expected, Anne Hathaway just slayed me with so much emotional "oomph". Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter brought something new to the table as the Thenardiers. But stealing the show was Samantha-freaking-Barks, coming out of (basically) nowhere and absolutely floored me with her insanely sympathetic Eponine performance.
Oh yeah, as a hardcore fan of the other cast, I went bonkers that Colm-effing-Wilkinson made as cameo as the bishop. He appeared about twenty minutes in, and the waterworks would not stop after that.
Now for the flaws. I hate to keep piling on poor Russell Crowe, but his song performance was disappointingly inconsistent, lacking the flair I had hoped for. Another performance that paled in comparison to everyone else's excellence was Eddie Redgrave's, unfortunately sounding too muh like Kermit the Frog.
Once again, I hate to keep piling on, but Tom Hooper's directing was extremely questionable, especially in terms of camera use. As usual, I'm not a fan of shaky handheld, and I was definitely not a fan of it for an epic musical. Hooper often chose closeups when they should be two-shots, or the other way around. This is a movie adaptation, and the whole screen is the canvas. Some flashbacks and fantasy visions during the songs could've expanded the scope and imagination of the moment.
Also, he lingered too long on actors trying to sing for the screen. Which made some of the performances feel little silly. Not to get too technical, but in live theater, you want actors to project, but in film, you want actors to act "within the frame". Actors usually dial down when they know it's a closeup so they look natural for that shot. When you linger on that shot for a long time, the actor is forced to trade stage panache for subtlety in songs meant to be belted out with passion and pain, in weird ways. Sometimes these one-take moments worked, but most of the time they did not.
Les Miserables was an awesome, emotional, nostalgic experience for me in the theaters. It was a rush to see it come to life on the big screen, to see Jackman and Hathaway take my breath away, to see Wilkinson take me down memory lane, and to see Barks take me by surprise. But Crowe's lackluster singing and Hooper's odd choices made it far from one of the year's best.
