Les Misérables (2012)
Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Isabelle Allen, Daniel Huttlestone, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter
Directed by Tom Hooper
***Moderate spoilers ahead only if you've lived under a rock during this awards season***
The epic Les Mis is overarchingly the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man imprisoned for over a decade for stealing a loaf of bread in early nineteenth century France. When released, Valjean is told that as a parolee he must periodically check in or else face heading back to prison. Valjean, however, wants to leave his past behind him and manages to find himself a successful businessman running a factory of sorts that employs a bunch of lower income women, one of whom is Fantine (Anne Hathaway). It is soon discovered that Fantine has a young child which I guess implies she's a whore (although I found myself questioning this whole plotline), throwing the other ladies into a tizzy causing Fantine to be fired and thrown out onto the streets unbeknown to Valjean. Forced to do whatever she can to provide for her child whom she has sent to live with others, Fantine sells all that she can (her hair, her teeth, and her body) and eventually dies, but not before Valjean meets up with her again and promises her that he will take care of her young child Cosette (Isabelle Allen).
Time passes and Cosette grows up (and is now played by Amanda Seyfried), but Valjean still finds himself constantly on the run from his former captor, Officer Javert (Russell Crowe) who is on a mission to get Valjean back behind bars for breaking his parole. Every time Javert discovers their location, Valjean and Cosette are forced to move, but when Cosette sees the dashing Marius (Eddie Redmayne) across a crowded street, she instantly falls in love with him (and he with her), wanting to stay with him rather than travel elsewhere with Valjean. Marius is quite politically minded, wishing to overthrow the French government to provide a better environment for the lower classes (or something like that...it's probably a pretty important part of French history that's glossed over in terms of depth here). We then add Eponine (Samantha Barks) into the mix who secretly loves Marius and also happens to have a connection to Cosette in that Eponine's father and mother (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) were the ones who watched after young Cosette over a decade before.
Whew...that seems like a lot to take in...and it is. However, with all that story and character connections, you'd think there'd be more depth and weight to the story. Unfortunately, the fact that this is a musical takes away a bit of the gravitas that I imagine is present in the novel. I am certainly someone who appreciates musicals and am definitely aware that most musicals utilize their songs in order to advance the story. Because of this technique, oftentimes the plot in musicals is simplified, but Les Misérables is a story that shouldn't be simplified. The songs, while beautiful (though perhaps not as memorable as I expected them to be seeing as how I was not familiar with this musical at all), made this heavy story seem more one-note than it should be.
For the most part, the performances were fairly solid. Mr. Hooper did a smart thing considering the operatic nature of the piece in having his actors sing live rather than lip sync as is the case in most musicals. This allows for quite emotional, real, and true moments to be present, best exemplified in Anne Hathaway's showstopping number "I Dreamed a Dream." Utilizing one long take with the camera focused solely on Fantine, Hathaway won herself the Best Supporting Actress Oscar with a riveting and heartbreaking rendition of the only song I'd heard from this musical prior to watching the film. For some reason or another, I had never listened to the lyrics clearly enough to comprehend the utter sadness and devastation that Fantine feels while singing this song, but Hathaway made me fully understand the pain of her once hopeful character.
The other standout to me in the ensemble was Eddie Redmayne who has a lovely voice and is also granted a Hathaway/Fantine-like moment at the film's conclusion with "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" as he looks back on the revolution of the lower class and the many friends he lost in the battle. There is also nice work from West End performer Samantha Barks in her first film role. Hugh Jackman has been a bit overpraised for his work here, but it was still perfectly acceptable, and, on the other end of the spectrum, Russell Crowe has been a bit too harshly criticized as I thought his gruffer voice suited his part fine.
Tom Hooper has done a nice job filming this operatic musical, but even he is unable to assist the hefty story not coming across with the importance it likely should. That's just an inherent flaw of the musicalization of a work such as this. When French Revolution aspects are thrown aside for a love story between characters simply because it suits the music better, there isn't much Hooper can do. Yes, the film has a murky, grayish-brown quality that does grow a bit tiresome as it heads into hour two, but I fully respected Hooper's hand-held, close-up style that he's actually been taken to task for. It does allow for the focus to be placed on the characters rather than their surroundings, bringing more emotional power to the songs. Still, despite some nice music, I can't help but think Les Misérables shouldn't have ever been made into an opera as the story seems to call for much more plot than a simplified musical can allow...then again, millions upon millions of theatergoers will disagree with me on that one.
The RyMickey Rating: B-
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