Les Miserables

Musicals, as you know, are far and few between these days on the big screen. When one comes along, it is usually due to the existence of a beloved following for a staged version. To risk the money to make a proper movie, the play must first have been wildly successful on Broadway. However, the adaptation from stage to screen can only be successful if the filmmakers make a real movie. They cannot just film a play. Les Misèrables comes close.

Les Misèrables is an English opera based on a Victor Hugo novel that begins in 1815’s France, just a few years after the French Revolution. The story unfolds primarily in song, many of which are quite beautiful. It opens on a breathtaking shot sweeping over rough ocean waters to several battered, listing ships being manually pulled into dry dock by a group of gritty singing prisoners including Hugh Jackman. It was truly a great cinematic opening worthy of rapt attention from the audience. This promised to be a real MOVIE!

Hugh Jackman as the prisoner Jean Valjean singing the happy little prison “Work Song” that opens the film.

The story proceeded with a very cinematic journey of  Jean Valjean (Jackman) going from prisoner to the rough paroled life society was putting him through as an unwanted ex-con. Once Valjean experienced a life-altering epiphany, the movie unfortunately began to take on the artistic elements of a play, and perhaps more egregious, the filmmaking techniques worthy of the small screen.

Director Tom Hooper, who received much acclaim for directing 2010’s The King’s Speech, honed his filmmaking skills firmly in British television for many years. Les Misèrables is only his third theatrical venture, and it seems as though it was a story much larger than he knew how to capture. Much of the movie was filmed with a shaky hand-held camera that included many corny tilted compositions that haven’t been cool since the days of classic film noir. Most of all, the film was shot with innumerable mid to close-up shots that will work very nicely on the box in your living room when the DVD/Blu-ray is available. Whether there were lovely ladies waiting in the dark, a battle scene between rebellious Parisians and the royal guard, or a grand wedding between two young lovers, the camera never explored the space. Paris never before felt so small.

The claustrophobia really made its presence known every time a character had a solo number. The camera would be planted firmly on the performer’s face and never leave it. Perhaps this was a calculated choice to give something to those who only saw the play from a balcony. As someone who did not have the play to draw on for reflection, the constant use of close-ups on the solos was, to be trite, boring. The actors needed to actually do something other than wiggle an eyebrow or two while singing their inner monologues.

Anne Hathaway who dreamed a dream as Fantine.

The only song where the unwavering intimate camera work was used to great effect was on I Dreamed a Dream. The tragic inner thoughts of Fantine, the single mother who turned to desperate measures in an attempt to provide for her young daughter Cosette, was performed brilliantly by Anne Hathaway. Hathaway has a quirky, warbled tone to her voice that worked very well for this beaten down creature who had no place to turn. The range of emotions on her face depicting the hopelessness for what she thought life would have been, to what it has become was utterly gut wrenching. Hathaway deserved the thunderous applause that erupted from the audience when her name appeared during the end credits, and deserves the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for that performance.

Likewise, Hugh Jackman delivered the performance of a lifetime in his role as Jean Valjean. His very well-rounded portrayal of an emaciated, beaten down prisoner, to desperate parolee, to respected mayor and businessman, to father, to man-on-the-run, to protective fellow soldier was a master class acting lesson in tragedy, love, loss and redemption. And while Hugh was singing his lines, he was truly ACTING. It was beyond acting. Despite the fact he is uttering every line in song, you convincingly believe that he IS that man living his horribly tragic life.

Russell Crowe as the relentless Javert who pretty much maintained this expression throughout the movie.

On the other hand, Russell Crowe’s performance as Javert, the soldier on the hunt for the elusive Jean Valjean, was not to the level of the other leads in the film. Crowe looked as if he was concentrating too hard on hitting his notes than actually acting, which did nothing to make Javert an interesting character. Perhaps the limited appeal of Javert as a villain was due to how he was written, or perhaps it was how Russell was directed, but Javert was so completely a one-dimensional character that could have been much more interesting had he experienced more of an arc in personality. He was given a chance for redemption, and did not take it. When we finally come to the end of his story, we could care less.

Speaking of the story as a whole, this was a movie of many storylines spread over several decades. You have Jean Valjean’s journey, Javert’s relentless pursuit, the story of Fantine, Cosette’s (Fantine’s daughter) tale which included her evil guardians (played with broad theatricality by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), and that of Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who instantly falls in love (as one must have done in the 19th century) with the grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) which proved to be quite distracting for him while trying to lead the revolution, and just for good measure, a story of unrequited love for Èponine (Samantha Barks). The film had many quick edits that were either due to constraints in the music written for the confines of a stage, or perhaps because the story that takes place over almost four hours on stage was cut down to two and a half hours on screen. Those edits didn’t give much time to set-up and explain story points, points that required further explanation from a die-hard fan of the play that was seated by me.

Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) on her wedding day with Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who had instantly fallen in love from across a plaza during a political demonstration. Isn’t that always the way?

Almost everyone comes to a tragic end since it IS an opera after all. Despite all the death and sadness throughout the story, the film ends in an upbeat manor with a final rousing number where all the ghosts join with the living in smiling song even though within this story the 1832 Paris Uprising seemed to have failed miserably.

Les Misèrables is a valiant effort to bring a very large story to very large screens. I can appreciate a good musical, so long as it is a good movie. This was an okay movie with a few bright spots here and there. It deserves a good solid B-. This story was prime material for a great cinematic treatment but didn’t quite get there. Perhaps one day more, the next musical to come along will completely lay aside theatrical tendencies and concentrate on whisking us away to a fantastic place of imagination as only a movie can.