"To love another person is to see the face of God."
I was very excited and counting down the days to christmas for the release of Les Miserables. Heather was too. The trailers looked great. My wife and I saw the play at the Kennedy Center in D.C. last year, so I knew the basic story and like everyone else know most of the music. I was interested to see how the film would differ from the stage play and looking forward to see what they could bring to the table.
The new cast was a mix of screen actors and stage actors. A pretty good mix. Most of the main characters were well known screen actors and the supporting cast were made up of people who have been playing roles on Braodway. I was uncertain about some of the cast. I had my doubts about Anne Hathaway as Fontine. I like her in a few things, but not very much. The other peson I was not excited to see was Russell Crowe as Javert. It turned out I was right on one of my guesses. Many were excited to see how Hugh Jackman would do as Jean Valjean, knowing that he had a lot of theater experiance. Amanda Seyfreid played Cossette in a smaller role. I will watch her in anything because I have a screen crush on her.
A quick plot synopsis of Les Mis is that it is set in France in the early 19th century. It is about a man named Jean Valjean who starts the play/film off in prison for stealing bread. He is parolled and runs off and makes a new secret life for himself. He changes his life for good and takes in a dying womens child and promises to raise her as his own. He spends the whole film running from a man named Javert who qas rhe guard at the prison and is now an inspector. Cossette falls in love with a revolutionary(Marius) and he is torn between her and supporting the cause.
The opening scene is of prisoners pulling a large ship into dry dock. It was amazing. The scene seemd so massive. I caught myself actually whispering "wow." The color of the water and the size of the ship were fascinating. I could have watched that scene for the full 2 1/2 hours. The second scene that took my breath away was the solo by Anne Hathaway as she sang "I Dreamed a Dream." At first I thought it was very risky for the director to shoot the whole scene in a close up of her face, but it paid off in a big way. I have never seen Les Mis the raw, this emotional. Each song (minus the water scenes) were sung live. This way they were able to catch the actors emotion more fully in their singing and whispers. The same scenario applied to the scene where Marius sings "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." The emotion flows from him you inderstand the survivors guilt that he is feeling. My wife did not like Hugh Jackman that much saying that is voice was too low for the singing some of the songs and I agree with her a bit. I thougth russell Crowe's voice was bad too. I think his vocal chords are lodged up in his nose somewhere.
I was impressed overall. If you have not seen the stage play this film is a great place to start. If you have seen the stage version that this will be a new, fresh way to see it. To get the raw emotion from close ups of actors is something you can't get from a stage play and it pays off.
8 out of 10
