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.