Les Miserables (2012)

[Atreides]

Yeah, not a fan of the continuous closeups. "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was beautifully sung by Redmayne but halfway through, I was focused more on his facial hair, freckles, and weird mouth.

[Deleted]

No love for Enjorlas (Aaron Tveit)? I thought he was the best part of the movie. Agreed with the rest of the comments. Good movie, distracting framing. I went in expecting Crowe's voice to be bad and it definitely was not good. But I still liked him in the role. I too found Jackman's voice surprisingly weak a few times.

[ijustworkhere]

I had no idea Aaron Tveit was a Broadway actor and only know him as Trip from Gossip Girl, so when he showed up belting like a pro and generally being awesome, my mind was blown.

[jynni]

Saw it today and....eh. I wanted to love it and went in with low expectations and well, it met them.

The good

Seeing the sets and context of the musical realized. The look and feel of everything was perfect. The whole Barricade and sewer sequences in particular were much more affecting than in the stage show.

Hathaway was excellent. This was one of the first times I think I've seen her truly become a character rather than Anne Hathaway playing such and such. As far as the Oscar goes, give it to her. I've seen Lincoln and think she's much better than Sally Field.

Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop - brilliant casting. He was just brilliant, even with only like two minutes of screen time.

Thernardiers - Loved 'em. My take on SBC's ever changing accent was that it seemed to be an intentional choice since Thernardier was constantly running various cons and disguising himself.

Samantha Barks/Aaron Tevit/Gavroche/Everybody at the Barricade - thought all of them were awesome and loved any scene that involved the students - Red/Black, One Day More, Building the Barricade, Do You Hear the People Sing - all very well done.

The Meh

Redmayne and Seyfried - He sounded like Kermit and she sounded like Minnie Mouse. Good acting choices by both - especially as noted by others, Seyfried at Valjean's death. I was doing good until Cosette lost it and then I lost it a little.

The Bad

Hugh Jackman - his voice in this role is like nails on a chalkboard bad to me and Bring Him Home was quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard in a movie musical (and yes, I'm taking into account Gerard Butler in Phantom and Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!). His acting was wonderful, I just couldn't listen to him strain to reach notes. He sounded like a goat on helium so the fact that he sings pretty much throughout the whole movie really ruined it for me.

Crowe - Looked the part, acted the part just couldn't sing the part. And it was weird because his singing voice didn't match his speaking voice at all to the point where if I didn't know better, I would've thought he was dubbed (badly). The scene w/ him placing the medal on Gavroche's body got me. I loved him so long as he wasn't singing.

The consistent fish eye/close up - I was over it 30 seconds into Valjean's Soliloquy after the Bishop gives him the candlesticks and it was just annoying and distracting for the rest of the movie. Own my Own was particularly bad.

So overall, I didn't hate it just didn't think it was very good. There were lots of great things it's just that the bad things were major things (camerwork/Jackman) and affected most of the film.

[Deleted]

Crowe's voice was the weak point, I have read and heard this from many people.

[bklynred]

I've never heard Jackman sing elsewhere, so for me this was a great performance from him. Crowe was just barely above "I'm talking along with music." I wonder who else was up for the part that they decided to cast him...

[plush]

As someone who loves the book and has never seen the musical, I liked it ok and I’m glad I saw it, but I kept thinking how much more powerful and beautiful this movie would have been as a regular drama with no singing at all. Crowe, and I thought I’d never be able to say this about him, was wooden, lifeless and his voice was so bad that it was too distracting. Hugh Jackman is a decent actor but his voice while not as bad as Crowe’s, was still weak. His songs were the least likable to me as well or perhaps they sounded boring because of the way he sang. I always thought he had a decent voice based on his singing when he hosted the Oscars a few years back but I guess this was quite a stretch for his limiting capabilities. I liked pretty much everyone else, especially the scenes at the Barricades. Those were my favorite. Little Gavroche was wonderful and the Thernandiers were hilarious and cartoonish so kudos to SBC & HBC for playing them with a lot of gusto and bringing some comic relief to an otherwise tragic movie.

The oversinging had two girls sitting next to me snicker even at some tragic scenes, and while that was a little annoying at first, I couldn’t help but agree with them. The only scenes I found touching was when Eddie Redmayne sang Empty Chairs & Empty Tables and the last scene at the end with everyone singing presumably in Heaven. Otherwise meh and that includes Anne’s Fantine. Her performance was a little too showy and theatrical for me but she was still better than Hugh Jackman and especially Russell Crowe. God he would have nailed Javert in a non musical. He’s got such a powerful voice and an imposing presence but throughout the whole time I felt like he was too conscious of his voice or lack of it to concentrate on the acting part.

Maybe the French will decide one day to make a movie out of Les Miserables. I would love to see the story told in French and actually based on the book not on the musical.

[Deleted]

I would love to see the story told in French and actually based on the book not on the musical.

Me too. I've not been able to get through the book (it's just soooo loooong) but it's a great story, and I do intend to finish it someday. I will never understand why someone though it was ripe to be made into a musical. I just do not get that thought process at all. I think it'd make a great extended mini-series, like maybe on the BBC or something.

[jynni]

Jan 2, 2013 11:29:07 GMT -4 plush said:

As someone who loves the book and has never seen the musical, I liked it ok and I’m glad I saw it, but I kept thinking how much more powerful and beautiful this movie would have been as a regular drama with no singing at all.

It was done back in the late 90's with Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffery Rush as Javert but I remember it not being very good. There is also a mini series version with John Malkovich as Valjean but I haven't seen it.

I think the problem is that the story itself is paper thin to begin with - it takes up maybe 500 pages of a 1500 page novel in which more character development is given to the Paris sewer system than to most of the main characters. I just finished it again and it really felt like Hugo used the story as a framing device for a history lesson on the events leading up to and the actual context of the June Revolution. Paris and France are really the main characters in the book.

Jan 2, 2013 11:29:07 GMT -4 plush said:

The only scenes I found touching was when Eddie Redmayne sang Empty Chairs & Empty Tables and the last scene at the end with everyone singing presumably in Heaven.

A version of the script I read was more specific about it depicting the successful French Revolution of 1848 in which the monarchy the Les Miz uprising was trying to do away with was finally overthrown, with all those who died the first time around fighting in spirit. In the musical (can't remember if it was in the movie), once the students on the barricade realize they're pretty much screwed, Enjolras has the line "Let others rise to take our place, until the world is free". I'd guess the final scene is a call back to that to show that the deaths were not in vain.

[petitesuite]

roisin54, I don't know how much you care about reading the book (and can't blame you if you don't), but if you're super interested there are abridged versions out there. I read an abridged version and do not personally feel that I am any less of a person for it, mostly because I do not need to read 200 pages of backstory on the bishop.