Les Misérables

When driving to a movie theater, what do you want to see? A film or a theatrical production? My thought is that no matter what, you'd want to see a movie. Anyway Les Mis is great for what it is, basically a filming of the stage play.

A story seen in many different iterations, from original stage play to actual movie and finally to a filmed version of the musical. It has been done well in each version and I've seen all three. Easily the best one is this one. Only a few roles utilize the live singing to its full potential, but when it works, it shines incredibly brightly.

Starting with Anne Hathaway's singing of 'I Dreamed a Dream,' it is unparalleled by any other song in the movie. Powerfully sung and depressingly beautifully acted, she nails this song on the head and upped the ante for the songs later in the movie. Only matched by Samantha Barks' performance of 'On My Own.' This is what the live singing should be used for: emotional performances. The other performances worth noting are Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bohnam Carter. Adding the only humor to the story.

Aside from the singing, the acting was outstanding. Anguish, anger, and ambivalence abound throughout this dark and dreary musical. Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are stupendous as the two main characters, even though Javert appears much too "magically" in this film. However this is more the original story's fault. How, over such a span of time, is one man supposed to inadvertently run into the man he is searching for?

Much of the acting is exactly what it needs to be, depressing and desolate. It works very well throughout, but far too many of the actors are singing just outside of their range and it shows in their facial expressions. In a stage play if you're singing out of your range you won't get the job, so why does it work on the screen? I don't have an answer for that. It's almost painful at times to see the straining in the actor's faces, only from the singing, not because they are identifying with the words.

Aside from the strain in the actors' faces there is not much else wrong with the movie. It would have been much better had they made it more of a musical instead of an opera. The only difference being actual dialogue versus constant singing. I wish there would have been more dialogue, though I know the stage musical didn't have much, if any, dialogue, but instead of singing with an annoying simple melody is worse than stopping your singing to actually speak.

Overall, it's a good adaptation of the musical, but the director needed to make his mind up whether to make his own version of Les Misérables or to copy, almost directly, the stage musical. In this case he chose to film the stage musical.

7/10