Les Miserables

This is literally just going to be a reaction piece, I have nothing of interest to say about this film/musical adaptation. So it's a standard to screen adaptation of the stage show of the well known and loved musical Les Miserables based on the book by Victor Hugo, it has lots of songs and intertwined characters, it's based around the life of Jean Valjean; he's awesome. I could go into detail about the technical side of things but I won't. All I have to talk about is the performances of the lead actors, otherwise, it was a competent glossy adaptation, as far as I can tell, Hooper used his go to move of focusing on the faces of the characters in order to make sure we know exactly how they are feeling. He also did something unique, he had the actors singing live and then added the orchestra in the editing room, so they more control over how they sang the music and could do it however they wished without any editing. It was an effective move for the most part, apart from Russell Crowe, he could have done with some tweaking unfortunately...

As someone who has a strong affection for musical theatre it's a bit odd that I have never actually seen Les Miserables; my mother told me, in her own words, 'It's shit.' So I had to sit through Jesus Christ Superstar instead which wasn't exactly to my taste but my mum liked it. So much to my surprise I thought Les Miserables was actually a bloody good musical, I really did enjoy it, even if it was extremely long and ... Miserable, but the songs are pretty damn good and the acting talent was on top form. I've had the song stuck in my head for the past few days since leaving the cinema, I've been on Spotify streaming the songs and imagining Hugh Jackman belting them out in my head, so, yeah, a combined affection for catchy overly emotional music and the fact I have quite an obsessive personality has lead me to claim it's the best thing ever! For today, or til the end of the week until the next greatest thing ever comes along... Musical music... Gawd... So good! If I could begin to belt out my emotions as strong and beautifully with a massive orchestra playing along to my straining lung, I would, every day!

Ok so I've written this paragraph about fifteen times, it's about Anne Hathaway, my conflicting emotions with regards to this woman know no bounds. I really intensely dislike her, she has an overinflated ego and tries to be quirky and self-deprecating but everything about her from her appearance to her demeanour scream that she has a very high self-esteem which must constantly be buffered by the adoration of people, the curse of being beautiful and talented and knowing it, oh how I weep for her, must be such a tough life. Bringing me to her performance as Fantine, Anne Hathaway has no idea what it would be like to alone and unloved, she's one of those people who has a network of people looking after her no matter how bad things get. This led me to just feel that her performance as Fantine was somewhat disingenuous, I didn't believe in it, I didn't invest in it and her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream was just... Not good. Don't get me wrong, the way she interpreted the song was honest, it should be song as if you can barely contain your hysteria, not like you're spitting your dummy out though. It's still a song, and thus should be treat with the belief that singing the song beautifully would perhaps bring some colour something good back into your life, there has to be a glimmer of hope in there, see Elaine Paige singing Memories... Maybe that's just me. Perhaps it was the fact that Anne Hathaway thought her performance was 'Eh.' in an interview, that's pretty much how I felt about it; but whereas she was being nonchalant and pretending to not give a shit about something she presumably put her heart and soul into (highly unlikely), I really just wasn't blown away. After her performance surprising for being for the best part of Dark Knight Rises, I was fully prepared to accept Anne Hathaway might once again prove me wrong and be excellent, she wasn't, what a shame.

So now that I've expunged that boiling bile, I can happily say everyone else, apart from Russell Crowe (sorry bud) were brilliant. The best part of the film? Hugh Jackman, obviously! I can't fault his performance; well a little, his accent veered off in several parts but the man carried the film and it was something to behold. It's actually extremely upsetting that Spotify doesn't have his version of Who Am I? As I could literally spend all day belting that one out... He deserves every award he is nominated for, including the Academy Award! Most people get away with just 'acting' and walk away with the award, Jackman sang through the entire film and pretty much carried it, he was astoundingly good. I know he has previous experience, he did star in Oklahoma in a previous life, but bloody hell he was perfection. I won't even mock the pretty lame make up... Or the fact his accent wasn't very consistent...

Another certain someone who not only surprised me but blew all my expectations out of the water was Eddie Redmayne, not sure why but I keep calling him Freddie in my head, that sounds way better... What was I talking about? I think it's a specific British actor talent to convey emotions with such skill that there is a barely concealed longing and grief with a twitch of an eyebrow. It's the Englishman way, the stiff upper lip, the buttoned up collar, never being able to fully express yourself because it's not good and proper, it's why English Literature is so damn popular, not only do they all wear those tight dresses and oppressive suits, they all never say how they truly feel, it's the old way of course, and in a musical it's not a commonplace thing as everyone just sings their feelings. My point is, the particularly good at doing this, you know, keeping it all buttoned up and hidden but managing to convey this with the merest facial expression, specifically Colin Firth, he's just the darn bestest at doing that. Anyways Eddie Redmayne falls into this category of British male actors with a talent of tweaking his facial expression to convey a wealth of barely concealed pain, see the BBC's TV Adaptation of Birdsong, he was so damn good in that. In this film he managed to make a strong impression on me, he's so beautiful and so damn talented and some have mentioned his singing capabilities weren't quite up to par in comparison to the rest of the cast, but I thought his rendition of Empty Chairs and Empty Tables was just heartbreaking, I felt it! This is probably where I reckon he did a much better job than Anne Hathaway because I preferred his performance and this has a lot to do with their contrasting versions of how to convey their misery. Sure his voice wasn't as strong as hers but his tears looked more real to me, his pain more honest, and I know he probably hasn't felt such pain and probably has the same ego problem as any actor does but it felt more real to me; go figure. Plus I could stare at that boy's beautiful face until the cows came home.

A brief shout out has to go to Samantha Barks who played Eponine, her version of On My Own was brilliant, plus I watched her on that stupid Over the Rainbow show on the BBC where they were looking for Dorothy for Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest stage production of The Wizard of Oz, and the loser each week got their red shoes taken off them and had to float away on a glittery moon... It was a bizarre television experience but my it was when I lived with my parents and I was somewhat forced to watch it on Saturday nights rather than... Doing stuff... She's really talented and I wish her all the best of luck in her future endeavours. That's all I've got...

Another thing to mention would probably be Helen Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen, wow similar names... They were funny and Master of the House was a fun song and prompted the cinema full of immature folks who found the entire sequence hilarious, to laugh extremely loudly and obnoxiously, and... I laughed too, loudly. One little thing would be the varying accents in this film clearly take place in France in the 19th Century, and the odd cockney accent the pair adopted, just seemed a bit out of place, fun though. Plus pretty much every time they were on screen they got a laugh, can't argue with that considering how much I felt like sobbing for the most part.

Russell Crowe can't sing. Sorry but Javert was boring and his unimpressive voice meant there was an audible sigh when he was on screen, a better singer would have probably made this part much more intriguing, Crowe had the personality of a lamppost and putting him against the electric Hugh Jackman seemed almost cruel.

I almost forgot about Amanda Seyfried, she was good. Her voice was beautiful, but she didn't have much to work with so... I almost forgot about her, apart from when I remembered Eddie Redmayne survived and had to be married to her forever. Lucky guy. Damn her... She was pretty, the only reason I remembered her was because Anne Hathaway keeps draping herself over her at the award ceremonies for some odd reason...

It was a long film, it was a musical, it wasn't happy, if you don't like that, don't see it. If you like that kind of thing come sing with me!
Who am I?
Who am I?
I'm Jean Valjean!