“Les Misérables” directed by Tom Hooper

• Tweet
• Pin It

Dan Walker on Film

Les Misérables

Director:

Tom Hooper (John Adams, Best Director Oscar for The King’s Speech)

Cast:

Hugh Jackman (the X-Men movies, Kate & Leopold, The Fountain, The Prestige)

Russell Crowe (L.A. Confidential, Best Actor Oscar for Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man)

Anne Hathaway (Ella Enchanted, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, Alice in Wonderland)

Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Mama Mia!, the TV Series Big Love)

Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn)

Running Time: 157 minutes

Victor Hugo

There’s no reason for me to have not seen any version of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables before this movie.  It’s been around forever  as a book, and then as a film. The stage production of the musical was recommended to me in the 80’s.  My resistance may have to do with a growing aversion at the time to stage musicals after friends “treated” me to the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express” (where I kept waiting for someone to fall on their skates),”Cats” (twice) and “The Phantom of the Opera”.  I didn’t like any of them.

I know I saw other stage musicals at the time, but the only other one that comes to mind is “Dreamgirls”, which I enjoyed though I saw it after Jennifer Holliday left to become the big star she never became.  I also think the title itself kept me away.  I don’t know much French but the title looks like it translates to “the miserables” and “miserable” is not an appealing word. I’m also pretty sure I was also put off when I learned there was little spoken dialogue just singing all the way through, which I just found out makes it a “sung-through” musical.

Susan Boyle

With that background, I went in open-minded and came out impressed.  Having no standards helps.  I didn’t know enough to be critical or compare any performance to a previous one (although you have to think of Susan Boyle every time you hear “I Dreamed a Dream”, since she now owns it for eternity).  I was familiar with the leads and director Hooper who did an incredible job with the mini-series “John Adams” and the feature “The King’s Speech”, so I knew the movie making itself would be very good.

Jean Valjean (Jackman, in a role he reportedly lost 30 pounds for) is thrown in jail for twenty years for stealing bread.  The film turns on his break from parole (to become legitimate and a town mayor under an alias), which starts the story-long pursuit of Valjean by the single-minded police officer Javert (Crowe).  Valjean takes custody of a child (Seyfried) of the unfortunate, recently fired, dying factory worker Fantine (Hathaway, in a role she reportedly lost 25 pounds for).

The movie was relentless in its drama, singing, production quality and scope.  Despite my appreciation for Hooper’s work and the main cast, I was apprehensive to see the movie until I found out all the singing you see is actually done real time by the actors as the film was shot— no lip-syncing to a studio recording and no lip-syncing to someone else’s studio recording*.  You have to admire Hooper for taking the hardest route. Imagine how tough multiple takes of these scenes were for everyone, especially the singing actors.  And you must admire the actors (especially Crowe) for having the courage to do it, although both Jackman and Hathaway have shown us they can sing before — Jackman not only won the Tony for “The Boy from Oz”, he hosted – and sang and danced in — the Tony program where he won.  When he hosted the Oscars in 2009, Jackman “spontaneously” invited Hathaway to the stage to sing with him and she nailed it.  Even at the time, it felt like a point was being made for the future.

Russell Crowe is especially impressive, an imposing pursuer singing every syllable as though his life depended on it.  Crowe has a reputation for commiting himself to every role he plays, so the quality of his performance isn’t surprising.  He’s sung in a rock band so singing is not completely foreign to him, just new to audiences.

Anne Hathaway milks every moment for all it’s worth. Maybe because she is shot so close up, her rendition of  “I Dreamed a Dream”*** seems suppressed, especially since it’s the movie’s big song.  The camera is right on her face and she never seems to be able to completely open up.  Jackman is also great but his singing seems somewhat similarly constricted.  Having heard him in full voice before, his singing in this movie seems contained; he never seems to go to his diaphragm.  It may be different singing the words of real songs as opposed to singing dialogue set to melody.  Maybe Hooper was more concerned about advancing the story than blowing away the audience with a “Star Search” type of vocal performance. It occurred to me later that “Les Miserables” is the most significant picture Jackman has starred in, which seems disproportionate to his talent and presence.  I thought he showed a lot of both in “Kate & Leopold”.

In support, Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen are wonderfully comical as the married and very oily street criminals Mr. and Mrs. (M. and Mme. are too good for them) Thénardier.  Their acquisition and then release of Cosette is significant to the story, but not much of what else they do adds to the film. Their contributions mainly slow the story’s flow.  Eddie Redmayne plays Marius, Cosette’s love interest and a leader of the student revolution*.  As he was in “My Week with Marilyn”, he is sufficient to the role but made me wonder who might have been better cast in the part.  The standout in support is Samantha Barks as Eponine, hopelessly in love with Marius.  She was so good I felt like I was watching a great London stage actress I had never heard of.

Between the nonstop singing and British accents ( in spite of it being set in France), it took a little while to adjust to the movie.  When Russell Crowe first sings, I immediately thought of Josh Logan’s 1969 “Paint Your Wagon”, where it was simultaneously fascinating and comical to see Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing, I mean lip-syncing.

March and Laughton
A Depression Era Les Miz

The Les Miz story was new to me, so I found it interesting; the production and acting are great.  For a movie I was apprehensive about seeing, it held my interest and absorbed me completely.  I was completely caught up in the story and the sentiment. I heard more sniffing at the end in the theater than I’ve heard since “Schindler’s List” or “Philadelphia” (both blatantly manipulative tear-jerkers that work very well).

Dan

______________________________________________________

* Ever since I found out Marni Nixon dubbed Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady” and Natalie Wood in “West Side Story”, I’ve disliked dubbing. It seems dishonest. I have less of a problem when people lip-synch to their own recordings, though I still find distracting when I catch someone doing it.  You can see why actors actually singing while the camera’s rolling would gain a movie big points with me.

** I guess the depiction of the Student Revolution was simplified for the sake of the story but the Revolt itself seemed really flimsy and hopeless.  It reminded me of playing fort with my friends in the front yard with big cardboard boxes.

Alexander making Miz

*** Besides Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream”, the only other music I’ve heard from the play was “Master of the House”.  In an episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza (Jason Alexander, himself a musical Tony winner) sang it throughout the episode, much to the consternation of Elaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) father, played by the gravel-voiced and generally intimidating Lawrence Tierney.  At the end of the episode, over the credits, Tierney is seen driving his car and growling out the song.  You had to be there.

Related Posts

• A Few Thoughts on Some of 2014’s Films and the Buildup to the Oscars
  A Few Thoughts on Some of 2014’s Films and the Buildup to the Oscars
• “The Theory of Everything” Directed by James Marsh
  “The Theory of Everything” Directed by James Marsh
• “Interstellar” Directed by Christopher Nolan
  “Interstellar” Directed by Christopher Nolan
• “Noah” Directed By Daren Aronofsky
  “Noah” Directed By Daren Aronofsky

Leave a Reply Cancel reply