Les Miserables (2012)

[luminosa]

I wish more people would single out Eddie Redmayne. I thought his 'Empty Chairs and Empty Tables' was amazing.

I loved it, cried a lot. Same gripe as many: way too many close ups.

[Deleted]

Just got back from seeing it, and I have nothing new to say: I cried, there were too many close-ups, the performances were amazing, Russell Crowe's voice was the weak link, and Anne Hathaway better clear out a bookcase for all the awards she's going to win.

I wish more people would single out Eddie Redmayne. I thought his 'Empty Chairs and Empty Tables' was amazing.

Ditto. He has a beautiful voice, and no one's talking about his performance at all. He's amazing in this.

[Atreides]

He's never sung professionally before, so it was quite an accomplishment for Redmayne. He's the latest candidate to join the Ugly/Sexy Club (currently presided over by Daniel Craig).

[proper stranger]

Loved it. I held it together fairly well until the final scene, when I became a blotchy-faced, sobby mess. The

SPOILER: Click to show

shot of Valjean walking towards The Bishop killed me. And "to love another person is to see the face of God" always gets me.

Dec 29, 2012 0:50:21 GMT -4 Atreides said:

He's never sung professionally before, so it was quite an accomplishment for Redmayne.

I am always super-critical of Marius-es, because I love Michael Ball's (original stage Marius) voice so much, and I was prepared to be unimpressed by Redmayne. But I thought he was wonderful in the part. I never would've guessed that he was new to singing.

Jackman and Hathaway were great. The little boy that played Gavroche did a great job, too. Also loved that Colm Wilkinson played The Bishop.

Agreed about the overuse of close-ups, especially during the big solos. During "On My Own", I wanted at least one wider shot of Eponine alone in a big space.

[Deleted]

I am always super-critical of Marius-es, because I love Michael Ball's (original stage Marius) voice so much, and I was prepared to be unimpressed by Redmayne. But I thought he was wonderful in the part. I never would've guessed that he was new to singing.

Eddie's not new to singing, he was in the Eton College Choir (he sings the solo in this clip and there's a bit of him singing Ave Maria in this one at 6:07.) He's just never sung on a professional level before.

[proper stranger]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. His voice is lovely in those clips.

[Martini Girl]

Saw it. LIked it. Didn't love it.

Cried several times. I liked Anne, but don't think she should win any awards. It seemed like she was only in the film for 10 minutes. Pretty voice though, and her skin is luminous.

I love Hugh, but thought his voice was "meh". Actually didn't mind Russell's voice, though it seemed auto-tuned.

Eddie and Amanda have lovely voices. Samantha has the tiniest waist I've ever seen.

I'm glad I saw it, but probably won't see it again.

[memememe76]

Saw it Xmas Day. Really liked it. In many ways, I loved it (despite the flaws).

I thought Anne was outstanding. Her screentime was short but in many ways, her character was the most fleshed out--she very eloquently and efficiently displayed Fantine's innocence and confidence, her downfall and her eventual redemption. There was an arc.

[bklynred]

I loved it. I needed it after Django. I don't remember the theater version but this was fantastic to me. Russell Crowe pulled me out of the moment a few times because he is clearly not a singer (and Seyfried's pitch occasionally made my ears ring), but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Just to put it out there, I get to the theater once or twice a year, and generally like musicals. And also, my whole audience murmured whenever Eponine's waist turned up.

ETA: I'm in LOVE with Eddie Redmayne. I was studying his interesting, freckled face the whole time he was onscreen! Empty Tables *almost* put me over the edge.

[ijustworkhere]

Chiming in re: Eddie Redmayne. I thought he was the surprise star of the film. "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables", which I usually think is kind of a dud of a song, was gorgeous and moved me to tears.

Overall, I thought the movie was good but not great. My main issue was that it seemed like Hooper ran out of steam halfway through, and was just going through the motions, flipping through the songs. "Okay, now it's this person's turn to sing, just stick the camera on them for a while and then we'll cut to the next person whose turn it is to sing."

And I kind of hate to do so, because I love him, but I'll state the unpopular opinion that I actually thought Jackman sounded pretty bad a lot of the time. He seemed to be trying to compensate for most of the music being out of his range by oversinging it, and it got really nasally with a WHACK vibrato after a while.

Thought Crowe was terrible, both singing and acting. It actually pulled me out of the movie, how wooden and downright bad he was. Such a shame; I feel like Javert is one of the meatier, more interesting aspects of the story, and he certainly has some of the best songs.

I was steeling myself against all the Hathaway hype (not that I don't like her, just that I hate being disappointed by stuff that's been hyped to death), but MAN, she absolutely tore her scenes UP. She was fantastic.

Despite its flaws, I cried like a baby in several scenes and overall really enjoyed it. It's a monster, though. When the credits came on I stretched like I'd been napping and thought, damn, I forgot how effing LONG that musical is.

ETA:

Agreed about the overuse of close-ups, especially during the big solos. During "On My Own", I wanted at least one wider shot of Eponine alone in a big space.

God, yes. You know the direction of a scene is shitty when someone as talented as Samantha Barks singing a song as iconic and epic as On My Own can't distract you from imagining how you'd have directed the scene differently. On My Own, and actually Eponine's bits in general, were a big disappointment for me. It was like she was an afterthought, and then boom, she's dead, oh well, moving on.