Les Miserables (2012)

[luminosa]

Wow. Just wow. Thought I cried hard at the first trailer. And Taylor Swift wanted to play Cosette? Uhhhh, no.

[Spinderella]

Sept 22, 2012 2:50:28 GMT -4 luminosa said:

And Taylor Swift wanted to play Cosette? Uhhhh, no.

Now that we know they were going to sing live during filming, I think we understand why she was removed as Cosette. Ouch!

[forever1267]

I saw the show at a national theater production in Kansas City waaayyy back in the 80's, and hated it. Music was nice, but the plot. He spends 20 years pursuing a man who stole bread to feed his starving family?!?!? I must have missed something, since I seem to be a lone dissenter in this musical.

However, I will be seeing it because I do love musicals, and love Jackman, Hathaway, and even Crowe. It does look spectacular. But 20 years? Over bread?

[jynni]

Valjean got 5 years for stealing the bread and 14 more for various failed escape attempts. After finally getting released, he skips out on his parole and basically becomes a fugitive.

Javert doesn't necessarily pursue him but their paths keep crossing and he's like "Ooooooo, fugitive! Back to jail with you!" every time they bump into each other. And Valjean, naturally is like "oh hell no!".

[Deleted]

Was Taylor going to play Cosette or Eponine? Either one would have been disastrous, but I can see her as Cosette more than as Eponine.

Anne is so going to get an Oscar for this. I'm calling it right now. Altering herself physically (weight loss/hair cutting) plus a performance that you can tell is going to be incredibly powerful simply by watching a thirty second clip? Both of those are catnip to the Academy.

[Atreides]

Plus a good death scene! Just give it to her now.

[Deleted]

Yep, the Supporting Actress award is Anne's to lose and she's already doing the round talking about her "de-glam" approach to the role. I'm going to roll my eyes so much at her during award season but I'm still looking forward to seeing the film. Still a bit weird that Crowe's singing is feature so little in the clips we've seen so far...

[Atreides]

I figure it'll be fun seeing Anne's acceptance speech. She'll probably cry buckets and I kinda enjoy seeing celebs lose their shit at the Oscars (Halle Berry winning is a classic).

I also think it was a smart idea to go with this live singing approach. Let's face it: none of these actors (except Samantha Barks) couldn't hope to match the songs the way they have been traditionally sung and Les Mis is one of the most famous musicals of all time. By having them sing "raw", they don't have to sing to the rafters plus they get to be "innovative" which gives them points with the public, the critics and the Academy.

[sugarhigh]

I saw the Les Miserables trailer before Pitch Perfect yesterday and actually started crying when Anne started singing! I felt a little dumb but her voice is so affecting I couldn't help it. I wasn't really into seeing this movie before but now I definitely am.

[Deleted]

I went to an early screening, so spoiler tagged:

I'm not the biggest musical fan, and I'm the only person on earth who hasn't either read the book or seen the play, so I don't know how this compares to either. It was interestingly both a big movie and a small movie in terms of the scope of the scenery. The first scene is of slaves dragging an enormous ship into a dry dock and it packed a huge punch. But then there were other scenes, like in the back streets of Paris when they're discussing their resistance work and fighting, that seemed almost like theater scenery. I'm not sure if that was a deliberate choice but it was interesting and seemed like something of a callback to its theater roots.

Anne Hathaway was amazing--deserving of the buzz. I'd seen pictures of her with the short hair but it looked downright horrible on screen, which was obviously the intent. I admire her for totally throwing vanity out the window--there was one scene where she was singing and crying and she had the ratty hair, a full on snotty nose and some strange red rash on her cheek and neck. Kudos for her for allowing herself to be seen on the big screen looking completely rat-infested and unattractive.

I thought Russell Crowe was one of the weaker links, especially in terms of singing. I'm not clear on whether he wasn't quite as engaged as the others or whether his part (or his interpretation of his part) called for him being so distant and unemotional.

Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen stole every scene they were in but, of course, they had fun parts to play with. The little boy who played Gavroche was also a scene stealer and impossibly precocious.

Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Barks sat in for a Q&A afterwards. They were both very charming, nicely down-to-earth and had a lot of fun and interesting observations. So overall a great experience!