"Les Miserables" Review

Translating a musical to the screen is a more difficult task than you might think. You can accuse them of whatever you like, but the simple fact is that film audiences are far less accepting of actors breaking into song than stage audiences are. Unless the director is very careful - or takes the easy way, and makes it animated & accompanied by singing fawns and bluebirds - a musical movie may result more in jeers than cheers.

Thankfully, Tom Hooper knows how to handle musicals. And good thing, too, since the musical in question is the most famous of the modern age: Les Misérables. He proves that he earned his Oscar (in 2010, for The King's Speech), and by assembling a phenomenal all-star cast to sing Victor Hugo's immortal story, he creates something truly epic.

"Les Miz" is about many things and many people, so the most basic plot summary I could give is: Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is a recently freed convict, whose only wrongdoings were (A) stealing a loaf of bread and (B) trying to escape prison, who has decided to create a better, more respectable life for himself. Under an assumed name, he becomes the mayor of a town, and witnesses a conflict inside a factory that results in a worker, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), being fired and thrown out. Fantine has an illegitimate daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen and Amanda Seyfried), whom she has been sending money to. In a desperate attempt to continue supporting Cosette, Fantine sells the few meager items she has and becomes a prostitute. She is eventually arrested, but is saved by Valjean- who realizes that the policeman arresting her is Javert (Russel Crowe), a former guard of Valjean's former prison. When Fantine dies in the hospital, Valjean becomes Cosette's caretaker, but throughout the years, he must constantly evade the pursuit of Valjean, as well as survive the June Rebellion- the infamous night in 1832, when Paris becomes aflood with insurgents against the king... one of whom has fallen in love with Cosette.

Like any narrative work, the story of a musical is important, but its true appeal lies in its music. How well the songs fit the mood, how they move the plot along, how memorable they are, and how well the actors sing them. It's no secret that Les Misérables is a good musical on the page, but even the greatest works of art require the proper treatment if one wants to translate them to the screen. If there's one surefire way to do it, it's the way Hooper has- by having the cast sing all of the songs live, as the scenes are being filmed. Usually, in a movie musical, actors record their songs before hand, and lip sync to them during filming. This does have its advantages. If the song's not being performed live, this allows the cinematographer to create many cuts and framings that can enhance the mood of the songs. But the real wonder of Les Misérables is that, by doing the opposite, the simple filming style increases the emotion of every song. If Hooper had gone for the standard movie-musical format... well, I don't think the film would have worked at all.

I don't want to buy the soundtrack album of this movie. Partly because I already have Les Miz's West End recording (and the original French concept album), but also because, without the visual component, the adaptation's music doesn't sound right. The notes are off, and the actors sometimes muffle or mumble their words in ways that don't make sense on an album. But when you see them as they sing, nothing sounds wrong. Although all of the actors have musical experience of some sort, some more so than others, the majority of them are primarily known more for their screen work. This is key. When the actors are free from both the expectations of a stage audience - the expectations of a passionate, technically perfect performance - and the comforting safety net of recording in a studio, they are suddenly required to not only sing, but act. Just singing about how you feel won't cut it in the up-close-and-personal world of movies; you've gotta sell it. And the whole cast isn't getting Oscar buzz for nothing.

Are you sick of hearing about how great Anne Hathaway is? Too bad! Because good lord is she amazing in Les Misérables. If her preparation for the role (she lost over 25 pounds so as to appear sickly and near death) wasn't enough evidence, her performance shows us that she has essentially become Fantine. I sobbed right along with her- she doesn't do much else, but given her horrific circumstances, you can't blame her. We've already seen it in the advertising, but her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream", the beloved Susan Boyle anthem, can't be spoken highly of enough. Through a single, static shot of her face, Hathaway weeps through the song while still miraculously maintaining her vocal range, and more than any other singer before her, embodies every word of the song in voice and image. Fantine dies within the first 1/4th of the movie, but you never forget her.

Not to say that the rest of the cast isn't fantastic. You'd expect nothing less but perfection from Hugh Jackman, and perfection is what you get- his Valjean may, as with Hathaway's, become the definitive performance. Russell Crowe has been criticized in some circles for having a rougher, less clean voice than his castmates, but I think it suits Javert's calm yet ruthless character- and of course, being Russell G. D. Crowe, he still acts the hell out of it. Cosette is, unfortunately, not an especially defined character, but Amanda Seyfried has a natural charm about her that gives her a little bit more weight. And as for her younger counterpart, Isabelle Allen, I must say that she amazes me. Not only is she a good singer, but she also has an uncanny resemblance to that famous engraving of Cosette, so prominently featured on the Les Miz musical's advertisements (and replicated impeccably by Allen for the film's, as seen above). So excellent is she that, after filming wrapped, the West End production actually cast her in the exact same role! Congrats to her, and I hope she has a future in performing.

Quite possibly the sole complaint I could make about the entire production is the relationship between Cosette and Marius. Even then, it's a small complaint: it's the way they meet. That is, if you could call it a "meeting". The two casually spot each other on the street, without even a word from each other, and yet in the next scene, each sings about how they are awed by, and in love with, the other. Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne are good enough actors that they sell the ensuing relationship (their duet, "A Heart Full of Love", is lovely), but I never really got over how strangely obsessed they became after a single glance. Love At First Sight is a cliché that's fairly common, especially in Victor Hugo's day, but you'd think an author of his stature would be above such melodrama. And in any case, it simply makes no sense when viewed in the modern day.

For being a novel that's 1400 pages long, Les Misérables is remarkably well-suited to being adapted into a 165-minute movie. Most of the plot doesn't feel condensed or abrupt; in fact, it feels like there's plenty of breathing room to spare, to fill up with pretty camerawork and deliberate pacing. The emotional impact of the story is squeezed out of every inch of the movie- one of the most beautiful shots is the very first, that of a tattered French flag floating in the ocean. Given how often a nation's flag is used for symbolic reasons, the metaphor is pretty obvious, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

Go see Les Misérables. You probably already did, but it never hurts to see something twice. Assuming you haven't seen it twice already... Or three times... or four...

Stars: *****
Awesome