This is a day late, and as always I'm a dollar short, but yesterday was a full day.
I LOVE the book and musical versions of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. So I was excited when I heard they were making a movie. I got more excited when I heard Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe were going to be in it. This excitement increased yet again when I discovered it was to be a motion picture version of the musical with full songs and orchestration. That excitement waned a bit when Anne Hathaway was revealed to be Fantine, but I never really liked Fantine anyway so no loss.
I'll address the movie and then the music. The scenery was awesome. The darkness that permeates the story was beautifully represented in the Gothic French architecture and grotesque costuming/makeup. The tragedy of the rebellion, its futility and the fanaticism of its participants was communicated clearly. At least two people related to me wept at certain scenes including the deaths of Gavroche, Javert and Valjean. The last couple movies I've seen Crowe in, he's been fair-to-midland. In Body of Lies he was not amazing and in Robin Hood he was decent but in Les Mis he didn't steal the show which Javert is very capable of doing. I'd give him a C-. This of course does not detract from his exceptional body of work including personal favorites Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. Jackman was fan-tas-tic. He was not Wolverine, he was not Angier, he was Jean Valjean. Especially early in the film I lost him and was deep inside Valjean's damaged psyche. Great performance, A. Hathaway is not my favorite. Her only good role as of yet is Red in Hoodwinked, which if you haven't seen stop reading this and go watch it, its that good. She was ok as Fantine, definitely had the depression and despair down. At one point I wondered if she was channeling Gollom a little bit when Javert was threatening to arrest her.In any case, I wasn't weeping when she passed, B-. Marius, Enjolras, Cosette and Eponine were all decently cast. They each had strengths and weaknesses, the most glaring weakness being Cosette. As a group I'd say B+. Sacha Baron Cohen is one of those guys that leads me to investigate everything he does. So much funny, so much talent, so little conscience. He managed to be the only character in the film with a French accent which is obviously a plus seeing as every character is French. (Gavroche used cockney, an urban British accent, which is laughably stupid.) The Thenardiers fit the parts and did well in their limited roles, A. The only other character of interest was the priest, played by Colm Wilkinson. If you've heard the songs Jackman sang, you probably heard this guy singing them. He is one of the greatest singers I've ever heard and it turned out was a more than capable actor. Bravo production crew for getting one of the greats, A++.
Now for the music. It was, in a word, meh. However, I did not go into it thinking I was going to be getting the 10th Anniversary dream cast. Which is definitely worth the 2 hours. However, some of the music was well below snuff. Russell Crowe was horrible. Ok, we all knew that. Hathaway was also less than good, but she was emotive, for what its worth, so I tolerated it. Cosette was horrible and obnoxious. In the book and play you're supposed to fall in love with Cosette with Marius. Not happening here. Marius and the other revolutionaries were great. Enjolras in particular had a wonderful sound. I could listen to them sing for long stretches. The Thenardiers were better than I expected, Madame Thenardier (more famously Bellatrix Lestrange) was quite good actually. Cohen kept up. I already mentioned Wilkinson. That leaves Jackman. The whole movie hinged on whether or not he could handle telling the story in song. Not just any song, but some of the most beautiful and extremely challenging songs on the stage. He nailed it. His Who Am I? was breathtaking. His One Day More was very good and his Bring Him Home was good as well. The only complaint is he wasn't Colm and that's not fair to anybody.
So, in conclusion. Great movie, I loved it. Be aware the Thenardiers are dirty people and Fantine is driven to darkness.
On a philosophical note. The musical and now movie, have a cross agenda from the book. In Hugo's novel, contrast is the driving force. Contrast between Valjean and Javert, between Marius and Valjean, between Cosette and Eponine, between Fantine and the Thenardiers, between the revolutionaries and the criminals, and finally (and I believe ultimately) between Valjean and Monsieur Thenardier. Valjean and Thenardier start in the same place - the mud. Valjean asks for mercy, grants grace, gives love and receives blessing. Thenardier cheats, steals, kills, loots and eventually stands alone in the gutter with no one and nothing calling down curses on the God he thinks abandoned him. This powerful theme is completely lost on the comedic character in the musical but you can't have everything I suppose.
Haven't decided what's on the docket for tomorrow, tune in to find out! Now on to watch the Braves and Pirates play the MLB TV free game of the day!
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