Do You Hear the People Sing?

It would be an understatement if I said that Les Misérables wasn't my most anticipated film of 2012. I'm a musical theater whore, and Les Misérables is in the pantheon of great musicals. It was part of the British invasion of Broadway in the 1980's (see also Cats, Miss Saigon and the current longest running musical in Broadway history, The Phantom of the Opera) that became known for their lush, dramatic scores, opulent sets (floating tires! A helicopter! Crashing chandeliers!) and their simplistic, yet iconic advertising. They all ran for at least a decade and were seen by millions of people around the world, myself included (For the record, Miss Saigon is my favorite of the bunch). I remember exactly when I saw it, May of 2002 at the Colonial Theater in Boston. We were in the third row center, and I was completely enamored with the production, especially the turntable and the barricade that was vital to Act II. I had listened to the original Broadway cast recording numerous times, and knew nearly every word, and was completely amazed at seeing it come to life on stage right before me.

With their incredible success and familiarity, it was just a matter of time before they transferred to the silver screen. The Phantom of the Opera was first in 2004, no doubt trying to cash in on the recent success of Moulin Rouge! and Chicago, and crashed and burned relatively quickly. Musicals aren't easy to do on screen, let alone a well-known one that an entire generation grew up with.

I had incredibly high expectations, especially with the cast assembled. Hugh Jackman was the definition of a star in The Boy from Oz, Anne Hathaway has an excellent voice, and a fair amount of actors with a musical background rounded out the cast. The only question mark in my mind was Russell Crowe (although I'm a huge fan-boy and I'd watch him read the phone book), but I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. The trailers that came out over the spring and summer only increased my excitement to see it, and early buzz anointed Les Misérables as the front-runner for Best Picture at the Oscars. There was extensive coverage of the decision to have the actors sing live during filming rather than record the musical numbers and add them in during post production. The initial reviews from advance screenings after Thanksgiving were near rapturous, and told of multiple standing ovations, and tears streaming down the face of attendees at the films conclusion. It scored well with some of the precursor awards, multiple nominations at the Critics Choice, SAG and Golden Globe Awards and was named Best Cast and among the top 10 films of 2012 by the National Board of Review. The critics started weighing in and their response was less than enthusiastic. Many cited director Tom Hooper's choice of two shots for most of the film - the extreme closeup and the sweeping wide shot. Many bemoaned the fact that it was bloated, and the performances were a little more than self-indulgent, including the incredibly out of his league Crowe as Inspector Javert. It didn't really matter to me, I was planning on seeing it anyways, sure that I would love it.

Christmas night I went to Cinemaworld in Fitchburg ready to be enthralled. I was pretty surprised at how crowded it was, but as soon as the first notes of the prologue played I became totally engrossed in the film. For the uninitiated, Wikipedia describes Les Misérables as "...set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a burly French peasant of abnormal strength and potentially violent nature, and his quest for redemption after serving 19 years in jail for having stolen a loaf of bread for starving relatives. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a kindly Bishop inspires him to, but he is relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector named Javert. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters he becomes entangled with get swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists make their last stand at a street barricade".

I absolutely loved the first 90 minutes or so, but then it quickly went down hill. Truthfully, I don't think that's necessarily the fault of Tom Hooper, structurally Act II is much weaker than Act I until the finale, but he certainly didn't help. I did notice that most of the musical numbers were filmed up close and seemed to trap the actors. The sweeping wide-shots were also overused, and the CGI seemed to be a little too noticeable at some points. There was also way too much imagery created in the stage version that was attempted to be recreated for the film which simply did not work, most notably the barricade, it seemed incredibly small compared to the rest of the set pieces, and the death of a major character that was incredibly moving on stage, but was borderline ridiculous on film. There was also the reshuffling of some songs, that didn't really work for me either.

As for the performances, let's get this one out of the way first - Anne Hathaway is just as good, if not better, than you've heard. She commands the screen every time she's on it, and her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is simply heartbreaking. If she's not nominated and wins Best Supporting Actress, I'm boycotting the Academy Awards forever (ok, so that's a blatant lie, but seriously). She's THAT good.  Hugh Jackman on the other hand, was a major disappointment. His physicality was incredible, but his voice was one note - loud. He completely ruined "Bring Him Home", which is supposed to start as a an almost quiet prayer and continue to build to an emotional climax, it's the money song for Valjean, and was a completely missed opportunity. Jackman pretty much belted out the entire thing, and didn't have anywhere to go. Most of the music seemed to be at the top of his register, and he seemed to be straining more than once. Color me not impressed. Ditto for Amanda Seyfried (who will always be known as Karen from Mean Girls), her vibrato/trill became incredibly irritating as the film went on. Russell Crowe, however, was somewhat of a surprise. Is he the best singer? Not by a mile, but I think that his voice worked well for Javert, rough and kind of untrained. I bought the CD yesterday, and his voice is starting to grow on me, I think that his version of "Stars" is actually pretty good. The other stand outs? Eddie Redmayne as Marius and Samantha Barks as the doomed Eponine were both excellent. Redmayne should be a star by now (he was fantastic in 2011's My Week With Marilyn) and Barks gave an excellent rendition of "On My Own", arguably the best known song from the musical. Aaron Tveit was also quite good (minus a ridiculous and completely unnecessary wig) in the somewhat thankless role of Enjolros. He's an amazing actor, I saw him as Gabe in Next to Normal and gave a tour-de-force performance as Frank Abginale in Catch Me If You Can. His final song in the show, "Goodbye" is incredible. He should have won a Tony for that performance, but I digress....

Overall, I thought it was good, not great. The score is excellent, the first 90 were amazing, and Anne Hathaway is well worth the price of admission alone. Three movies left to see, Django Unchained which I'm seeing Sunday, Zero Dark Thirty which FINALLY opens in Boston next Friday, and Amour which is TBD. Feel free to leave comments on your thoughts about Les Misérables below.

'Twas the night before Christmas....

Merry Christmas! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year, good food, good friends and and good family.

So my last post I mentioned that I saw Pippin at the A.R.T. in Cambridge and was completely taken with it. So taken with it, that I have tickets to see it again after it opens on January 6th. Greater Boston on WGBH ran a piece on it last week, check it out:

Watch Dec. 18, 2012: Pippin' on PBS. See more from Greater Boston.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was also quite good, and enjoyed the day in New York. It was absolutely perfect weather, and I love the city at Christmastime.

Going to see Les Misérables on Wednesday, and pretty excited about it. There was an interesting article on Slate as to why the musical resonates with this generation. Not sure if I buy it, but it's a good read none the less. Also hoping to see Django Unchained at some point this week, and hopefully Zero Dark Thirty and Amour before I go back to PEI.

That's it for tonight, will write more later this week.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Corner of the Sky

It's good to be home, even if it's for just a little while. Finished up with PEI for the time being last Friday and had a marathon day of travel, 4 airports, 3 states and two countries. Since it's close to the holidays, flight prices are ridiculously out of control. I had to go the most roundabout way to get from Charlottetown to Boston (Charlottetown - Toronto - Newark - Boston). I was able to go to the company Christmas party and catch up with some folks I haven't seen in a while, so that was good.

Finally got to see Lincoln over the weekend, and it was just as magnificent as I expected. More, actually. I wasn't expecting to be as moved as I was. The measure of any good film (especially one where you already know the outcome), is the suspense that it creates. Argo was a fantastic example of this, and Lincoln was done equally as well. Set in the last 3 months or so of his presidency, Lincoln deals primarily with the passing of the 13th amendment to the Constitution - outlawing slavery. The performances were uniformly excellent, and Daniel Day-Lewis is just as good as you've heard. He is Abraham Lincoln. The rest of the supporting cast was great as well, it was a variable who's who among the Hollywood elite. This could easily be Spielberg's best film since Saving Private Ryan, it really is that good. This past week it scored big with 13 Critics Choice (a record), 7 Golden Globe and 4 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. I can totally see this film sweeping the Oscar nominations in a few weeks, with upwards of 13 or 14 nominations (the record is 14; All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997). The only few films left to see this year are Les Misérables (which has gotten pretty tepid early reviews), Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's follow up to 2010's Best Picture The Hurt Locker) and Django Unchained. Hope to see Les Mis and Django between Christmas an New Year's, and Zero Dark Thirty ASAP. It's opening in limited release next Wednesday, but that might only be New York and Los Angeles. Hopefully it comes to Boston.

Tuesday night, Miss Alison Hay and I saw Diane Paulus' new production of Pippin at the A.R.T. in Cambridge. I saw her latest production, The  Gershwin's Porgy and Bess a year ago on Broadway and it was outstanding. There had been rumblings since it was announced that this production would transfer to New York, since it hadn't been on Broadway since its original production in the 1970's. It was one of Stephen Schwartz first musicals (although he doesn't have to write anything ever again thanks to a little musical Wicked), and was directed by Bob Fosse. Naturally, I needed to get tickets. Basically, a mysterious acting troupe, led by a Leading Player, tells the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance in life. I didn't really know a whole lot about it other than that, so I didn't really know what to expect. That was all for the better, I was completely taken with the show, and cannot wait to see it again. The acting troupe was/is a traveling circus, the set is a stylized circus tent, so it was like a production of Cirque du Soleil meets musical theater. Clearly, I was in heaven. The circus acts were outstanding, and it was a nice frame to the story. There were also quite a few clever magic tricks that only added to the overall excellence of the production. The score was great, and the re-worked orchestrations made it sound much better than the original recording from the 70's, which was a little to synth heavy for my liking. Hopefully this will get a cast recording. Matthew James Thomas was outstanding as the titular character, and Patina Miller (who I saw a few years ago in Sister Act) gave an excellent performance as the Leading Player. The rest of the supporting cast was quite good as well, but the real stand-out was the ensemble, consisting of seasoned Broadway performers and trained acrobats. The positions that they could contort their bodies into was nothing short of impressive. Seriously, there were multiple times I'm sure I was wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Hopefully this transfers to New York in the Spring. After the dismal start to this season, Broadway needs something like this for a boost. It's playing at the A.R.T. through January. The Boston Globe ran an excellent article on the production a few weeks ago; check it out to get a feel for the piece. Go see it. You won't be disappointed.

Speaking of New York, heading there tomorrow to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of the musical from the 1980's based on Charles Dickens last, unfinished novel. I don't know a whole lot about this one either, except that the audience gets to pick the ending. That's a gimmick enough for me, and it opened to rave reviews a month ago. I love New York at Christmastime, combination of my favorite holiday and one of my favorite cities in the world, there's nothing else quite like it. Will be getting up a little extra early though. Since I'm going to be going back and forth between the US/Canada for a while, I applied for the Global Entry program, which is essentially a customs pre-clearence and will cut down on my wait time at the airport. It can be used at any border entry into the US, and is good for five years. Anyway, you have to go to an airport for an interview and to get you finger prints taken, and the earliest appointment at Logan wasn't until mid-February. I was, however, able to get an appointment at Newark on Saturday at 10am. Figured since I was planning on being in the city that day anyway, might as well get it taken care of. So have to leave Ashburnham at 5am. Whatever, this will totally be worth it.

Flurry of awards activity the past week, with Critics Choice, SAG and Golden Globes. Right now things are pretty much status-quo as far as awards contenders go. Lincoln, Les Misérables, Argo, Zero  Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook have been popping up everywhere. If it there were still only five nominees for Best Picture, those would definitely be it. This has been an excellent year for film.