Les Misérables

Film (2012)

With Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier), Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thénardier), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Aaron Tveit (Enjolras), Samantha Barks (Éponine), Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche), Isabelle Allen (Young Cosette)

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is down and out, a long-term prisoner subjected to harsh labor for a minor crime. It is the early nineteenth century in France, and the short-lived benefits of the revolution have yielded yet again to a state run by a king. Valjean gets out of jail and faces life in the real world, not an easy prospect for a bedraggled long-time prisoner. Despite initial foundering, with help from a noble priest, he begins life anew. Things get complex, despite his adaptability, but he assists others, including Fantine (Anne Hathaway), while facing the continuing challenges of a determined police chief, Javert (Russell Crowe), who pursues him relentlessly.

The score for Les Miz is continuous. Like an opera, it has no spoken dialogue, only singing. So, if you decide to make a movie of it and want big stars, you either have to make them sing or dub someone else’s voice behind each of them. Tom Hooper, the director, chose the first approach, and the results are pretty good.

Interestingly, Hooper’s last film, The King’s Speech (2010), was also about helping the not naturally vocal to vocalize.

In some cases, the results are really very good.

Anne Hathaway (Fantine) sings her head off and the quality of her voice is very nice. Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean) is actually a Broadway song and dance man in addition to being a movie star, so he carries off his singing quite well also, though there are challenges, even to him, in the high range. Russell Crowe (Javert) does a decent job for a tough guy from down under, though his vocal chords get even further stretched than Jackman’s, sometimes near the breaking point. The other major stars, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, manage their comedic choruses with bounce and verve; their earthy tunes do not require much straining and they just get to bop along.

Other leads – Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Eddie Redmayne as Marius, and Samantha Barks as Éponine, are exceptionally good singers and have been brought in as ringers to maintain the musical momentum for an otherwise not completely vocally refined crew.

Two kids – Isabelle Allen as the young Cosette, and Daniel Huddlestone as the young rebel Gavroche – do great jobs with their voices and parts. Huttlestone has amazing screen charisma for a kid; I wonder where he will show up next.

The film, overall, was a lot better than I expected.

I actually like the music to Les Miz, even though I see its limitations. There are basically three musical themes in it: the prevailing, sentimental one, which covers self-discovery, compassion, religion, forgiveness and love, the funny one, which covers boisterous low life and corruption, and the patriotic one, which covers rebellion and social hope. Those three themes get copied, inverted, twisted and bent in all sorts of ways to produce a very long, continuous score.

I still like it. It has a passionate verve to it, even though some of it syrupy; there is a relentless continuity that susceptible showbiz lovers can easily get caught up in.

Though the story has its sentimentalities, there is enough about it that is not to rescue it from sugary overload, even with the continuing, frequently sappy, music.

I was surprised, pleasantly, by the quality of direction and the editing and thought that there was very little which was hackneyed or out of place. The movie went on for a long time – over two and a half hours, but I remained entertained and caught up in it. That is pretty good for a movie with no actual talking and no intermission.

I am not surprised the film is well done; Hooper did a wonderful job with The King’s Speech, tautly controlling it while giving it enough humor and breathing room to be vital. Though Les Miz is an entirely different animal – much more all over the place and unwieldy, not to mention its unending musical score – Hooper has given it a feeling of shape and a sense of directorial discipline.

Hugh Jackman makes a quite good Jean Valjean and goes through all the stages of his changing fortunes with a reasonable fit of temper and voice.

Though Anne Hathaway’s role is not huge, it is compelling. She has, in addition to a voice much bigger than expected, a lot of charm, and upholds, very well, the karmic fulcrum that Fantine maintains in the story.

Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and Eddie Redmayne (Marius) are charming in their togetherness, and Samantha Barks (Éponine) is a great third side to the triangle. It is a sweetly poignant portrayal all around.

I could see how, if you did not like musicals, or especially musicals that have nonstop music, this would be torture. I happen to like musicals and I know the score to Les Miz quite well, so I was not surprised by the story, the unrelenting music or anything else. I was surprised that it turned out as well as it did, given that the failure rate for musicals converted into films is even worse than it is for new restaurants.

This translation to film works surprisingly well. There is a dramatic initial depiction of a bunch of prisoners dragging a ship into drydock. It is a big, cinematic setup and gives just a taste of what is to come. The filming of this scene, and succeeding others, does not feel like a staged version of a show, but has a cinematic integrity of its own. Dramatic scenes in the Paris sewers, and looking down from tall bridges, all provide good turns of distinctive cinematic strengths functioning ably here.

Overall, this is an unexpectedly entertaining and enjoyable recapturing of this immensely popular musical based on a great novel.

– BADMan