Les Miserable - a spoilerific review!

hiphipharar

Unfortunately he absolutely murdered ...'Javert's Suicide'

Huh? 😉 😃 Good review Kelsey. I'm one of the few that has ventured out from under my rock to see 'Les Mis' (a French production with the ubiquitous Gerard Depardieu as Valjean). Musical and acting performance aside, do you think the story was adequately conveyed in this production. I know you said "fantastic adaption". This on IMDB: "every single song was recorded live on set to capture the spontaneity of the performances. Everyone involved, from Hugh Jackman to Russell Crowe to producer Cameron Mackintosh, have praised this approach as it allowed them to concentrate on their acting as opposed to lip-syncing properly. They have also praised director Tom Hooper for attempting this on such a scale; something no director has ever done before.." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/

Kelsey

Well... Les Miserables is one hell of a slog as a book. I've only read it once and frankly didn't enjoy it - it's laborious and overblown and very very wordy with massive digressions and sub-plots. Some would say the same of the musical itself, and they're right to a degree - it's structured more as an operetta, with solos (arias) and sung dialog (recitative) and it has a simplistic structure to certain elements, particularly the love story. But the musical does away with a lot of pointless babbling (discussions of sewer architecture, for example) and streamlines the story. I think that it manages to do a better job of telling the core story in some aspects - particularly Javert's moral quandary and the identification of Marius as the 'corpse' Valjean carries from the sewers. The movie's editing style I think makes an already tenuous set of circumstances a little more confusing than a staged production. Hooper isn't the only one to have done live set vocal performances, but it's certainly the largest scale ever attempted!

conikal

Good review Kelsey, but my less professional assessment is slightly different... Even as a musical, the was too much singing in this film. ! ??? They would have been better to employ dramatic dialogue for some of the "conversation" rather than let Jackman and others croon through less than entertaining "singalogue" with very variable effect. It may be very worthy to claim "live" recording, but the results were less than impressive in many cases. In particular, i know HJ can perform much better than this....maybe he is just not suited to this "operatic" style and maybe they should leave the great operatic works to great operatic singers ..after all it is a musical But the girls definitely out performed the guys this time ! PS.. Does Samantha Barks really have that small a waist..it cant be more than 30 cms ??? 😛

hiphipharar

conikal wrote:

Even as a musical, the was too much singing in this film. ! ???

Then you might prefer the production I saw which is purely dramatic: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230534/ I didn't see every episode but found it fairly easy to follow. Apparently it's being repeated on SBS with episode 2 last night. See it again at http://www.sbs.com.au/films/video/13151299700/Les-Miserables-Part-2

conikal

Thanks for that, I will give it a go. guess i have been spoiled with seeing the stage show several times in London and here, together with my wife having the official sound track CD permanently playing in her car !

Kelsey

conikal wrote:

Good review Kelsey, but my less professional assessment is slightly different... Even as a musical, the was too much singing in this film. ! ??? They would have been better to employ dramatic dialogue for some of the "conversation" rather than let Jackman and others croon through less than entertaining "singalogue" with very variable effect. It may be very worthy to claim "live" recording, but the results were less than impressive in many cases. In particular, i know HJ can perform much better than this....maybe he is just not suited to this "operatic" style and maybe they should leave the great operatic works to great operatic singers ..after all it is a musical But the girls definitely out performed the guys this time ! PS.. Does Samantha Barks really have that small a waist..it cant be more than 30 cms ??? 😛

In reality, it's not a musical - "Operetta" is a bit offputting but accurate, given the sung dialogue (recitative). And I agree that the live recording really had a negative impact in some cases, particularly in some of the recitative. The thing is that musical theatre performers have been able to act and sing for a very, very long time. The director and Jackman took far too many dramatic licenses at the expense of the music and, I believe, the ultimate enjoyment of the movie goer. There was a scene leading up to the barricade scenes where you can see Eponine unwrapping her cloth 'poor girl's corset' binding - that's where the thin waist comes from.

Kelsey

conikal wrote:

Thanks for that, I will give it a go. guess i have been spoiled with seeing the stage show several times in London and here, together with my wife having the official sound track CD permanently playing in her car !

And yet ignoring the dubious performance choices, the music and sung dialogue is true to the original stage production. The editing also makes it harder to follow and appreciate, I believe.

RichardM

I'm not a big musical fan, but this one I'm going to see this weekend. I've never seen the stage production, so I'm trying to go in with an open mind. I'm just hoping I can follow the story line (though this one, I have heard, does have a good musical/theatrical story line, unlike crap like Mamma Mia which just tries to mash some songs into a plot). Hugh Jackman is a larger than life character. Can't think of too many films where anyone else matters when he's on the screen, but can see how that might detract. I was questioning Crowe as a choice, but we'll see how that goes. As for Anne Hathaway, she can turn a bad character good, and a great character into a masterpiece. She can convey raw emotion in a way I haven't seen many other actors do so. Can't wait. Will post back once I've seen it.

Kelsey

Crowe's voice is good in places, it's a shame the character's two main dramatic solos are not done full justice. But he does play the role credibly and with complexity.

RichardM

Just got back from watching this film, and overall, loved it. There were only two things that annoyed me: 1) I could not stand the character portrayal of Marius (Eddie Redmayne). I just found him to be unbelievable. The close ups of his face lacked emotion and feeling compared to the others around him, which was distracting 2) At times, when a character was singing, then the camera switched to another character, the sound levels weren't matched in some places (this is most obvious in a scene where Jean Valjean (Jackman) is singing outside a doorway, and Marius and Cosette are inside the doorway (if I remember correctly). Other than that, brilliant. I really was surprised at Sacha Baron Cohen's acting too. Fun character. I thought Russell Crowe did a great job, as did Hugh Jackman. Anne Hathaway just made me want to see more of her on screen. She was brilliant.

Brett_H

Marius/adult Cosette are the worst characters to portray. I always felt sorry for my young artisits portraying these roles/characters. They are wet and one dimensional due to the nature of their stage time and content. there are a few things the conductor can do to help but they wouldn't meet with the composer or Mr Macintosh's approval. I've not seen it yet.