OK, I came back from the cinema last night, feeling incredibly tired after watching a film for roughly three hours starting at 7:30 at night until roughly 10:00. By the way, I've always been a huge fan of the stage version of Les Mis, but that film, my God that film...WAS UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Les Miserables
Rating: *****
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen & Helena Bonham Carter
I think people know the plot by now, but if you're new to Les Mis, here it is: In a span of roughly 20 years, the film centres on an ex-convict turned mayor called Jean Valjean who's pursued by the vengeful inspector Javert and adopts his factory worker's daughter Cosette after she dies becoming a prostitute to get money for her. Cosette grows up and falls in love with a revolutionary student Marius, who is also the object of Eponine's affections, the daughter of Cosette's previous abusive caretakers who plan to steal from the students who'll die at the barricades. And that's the short version!
Let me start by talking about the singing, which to me is one of the most important elements of a musical film and most of the time, can fail! This film doesn't since ALL of it was done live with the actors wearing earpieces with a piano track so they can be in time with the music which the orchestra would record over during post-production. Considering Hugh Jackman had a Broadway background, it's no surprise that he does well as Jean Valjean and I could definitely see the emotional conflict inside of him during the Soliloquy and I could tell he wanted to show his all for Bring Him Home, which he sings amazingly! I could see Russell Crowe was making an effort with his singing, but at times I thought it was weak like at the end of Stars and Javert's Suicide, but he also shows his good acting skills and I could see he wanted to relate to the character. But Anne, my God, she stole the show for me, even if she only appeared for 20 minutes. She made me cry thrice and I wanted to applaud after she sang I Dreamed A Dream, which is one of the best renditions I've ever heard! Samantha Barks was utterly amazing as Eponine, who I saw her perform as in London 2 years ago, especially during On My Own and A Little Fall of Rain and Eddie Redmayne did show the drippy side of Marius (he even admitted in an interview that Marius was a drip!) yet he shows the emotional side especially during Empty Chairs At Empty Tables. By the way, Eddie Redmayne is definitely much better than Nick Jonas! With Amanda Seyfried, it's a mixed bag. She can sing, but at times it can be weak, sort of like Emmy Rossum from Phantom of the Opera, but I think Amanda has the upper hand, even though I don't like the character Cosette in general. Isabelle Allen was sweet though as young Cosette in Castle on a Cloud.
The production design is incredible, with the attention to detail being perfect, even down to the text being in French on posters and letters. My personal favourite sets were the garden in Jean Valjean's house in Paris, the barricades around the tavern and the convent at the end of the film, which were so beautiful to look at, just like the costumes which I'm actually glad that they didn't do replicas of them from the stage show, like in The Phantom of the Opera. My personal favourite costumes were Eponine's dress which looked really pretty on Samantha and any of Cosette's costumes, as well as the Thenardier's hilariously exaggerated costumes they wore to disguise themselves at Cosette and Marius' wedding.
One other element I absolutely loved was the changes actually made sense like the rearrangement of songs, cutting verses and adding more dialogue because it helped the story flow more and made things closer to the Victor Hugo book, like adding Fantine selling her teeth, Eponine's death being more sacrificial and Gavroche delivering the letter to Jean Valjean instead of Eponine. I know people will be picky with the changes if they've seen the show like myself, but at least it wasn't like the Phantom film where the changes failed miserably with speaking the lyrics and completely cutting out scenes and adding in the unnecessary bits of older Raoul which made point at all. If you think about it, they only completely cut out one song Dog Eats Dog, but at least the actual scene was kept in with Thenardier and the actual plot and message was left intact.
An honourable mention goes to Frances Ruffelle and Colm Wilkinson, the original Eponine and Jean Valjean in the stage show, who play a prostitute and the Bishop of Digne! I enjoyed Colm as the Bishop because I always thought there was a kind and compassionate side to his voice which was perfect for the Bishop, espcially when he saves Jean from being arrested again when he stole his silver. Also, his addition at the end made more sense since 1) Jean doesn't interact with Eponine at all in the film and 2) the Bishop was the person who motivated Jean to become a better person in the first place and he kept his word even until his death.
By the way, I must warn you, I hope you have tissues in tow because this film will not fail to make you cry. I cried EIGHT times in 2 1/2 hours, and 3 of them were when Anne was onscreen for about 20 minutes! But the bits I cried most at was the ending and the scene of all of the students dying which was heartbreaking to watch, even though I knew what was going to happen and no other film has ever done this to me before. People were actually applauding when the film ended it was that powerful, so this film has definitely hit a core with people, even those who have never seen the show loved it! I must say, this is probably the best musical film I have ever seen in a long time and will hopefully be the comeback since the more recent ones went from meh to utterly terrible! So yes, I really recommend that you see this and you will love this much more than Rock of Ages or The Phantom of The Opera film! Overall, it's most uplifting tearjerker I have ever seen and it's also fun trying to spot the West End stars if you can like Hadley Fraser, Kerry Ellis, Killian Donnelly and Gina Beck if you're a theatre fan like myself! By the way, spotting Robyn North won't be that difficult since she's shown as a prostitute having sex with a guy dressed up as Santa Claus during Master of the House!
