There's something incredibly democratic about motion pictures. No matter how expensive they get, they will always be cheaper than watching live stage musicals on Broadway and West End. Not only that, but it's much easier to screen movies around the world than it is to ship whole casts and crews or musicals to different countries. Inevitably, then, to adapt popular stage musicals into films, means introducing them to a much wider audience than they have ever known. Often, the magic translates, as shown by the success of such landmark films as West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and more recently, Chicago and Dreamgirls.
It's a genuine tragedy, then, when a film that should have resonated with cinema audiences the way it has done with theater audiences turns out to be a misfire of one sort or another. In the last several years have been almost as many failed or disappointing musical adaptations, like Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Sweeney Todd, Nine and Rock of Ages, as there have been successes.
Adapting the Broadway smash hit Les Miserables was a challenge movie and stage producers wrestled with for years, with the film seeing a revolving door of directors and stars over a period of nearly three decades. Well, if the box-office figures and the plethora of awards nominations (and wins) are any indication at all, I'd say director Tom Hooper and his cast, led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway have pulled it off in spectacular style.
What did I think of it?
Well, I have not seen the stage musical, so I cannot judge it by those standards, but as a filmed narrative it worked just fine for me.
Les Miserables is the story of Jean Valjean (Jackman), a man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread who ends up spending nearly two decades in prison because of an attempt to escape his first sentence. He is finally granted parole with the stern warning from police constable Javert (Crowe) that any recidivism will land him right back in the penitentiary. Valjean is now obligated to show any potential employer his parole papers, which results in him being unable to get work anywhere. Down on his luck, he is taken in by an aging bishop (Colm Wilkinson). He attempts to rob the Bishop, but even when he is caught the bishop clears him of wrongdoing. Moved by this generosity Valjean vows to change his life.
Years later, Valjean enjoys a different life as a factory owner and small town mayor. One of his employees, single-mother Fantine (Hathaway) finds herself caught between her jealous co-workers and her lascivious foreman and, because Valjean, distracted, does not take action, Fantine ends up on the street. Meanwhile, Valjean learns from Javert, who does not recognize him, that another man has been caught and will soon serve a prison sentence for having skipped Valjean's parole. Conscience-stricken, Valjean strides into court declaring his identity, although at first he is not believed.
Meanwhile, desperate to earn money for her child, Cosette (Isabelle Allen) whom she has entrusted to two very unsavory innkeepers, the Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), Fantine resorts to prostitution. In time, she grows ill, and on one occasion when a potential patron of her causes a commotion, Valjean happens to see her and, upon recognizing that she is the factory worker he did not help, is wracked with guilt. He takes her away to a hospital, even as Javert, who also happened to be on patrol in the area, spots him. Javert, having heard of Valjean's confession, follows him to the hospital and confronts him immediately after Valjean promises the dying Fantine that he will care for Cosette. Valjean escapes once more, and upon recovering Cosette from the Thenardiers, goes into hiding for several years.
Years later, civil discontent brews as the events leading up to France's June Rebellion of 1832 are set in motion. Marius Pontmercy (Eddie Redmayne) is the son of aristocrats but who has joined a group of students plotting a revolution. Eponine (Samantha Barks), the Thenardiers' daughter, is his neighbor who is secretly infatuated with Marius. When Marius finds himself infatuated with the grown-up Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) events take place that will yet again draw Jean Valjean out of hiding and towards his final destiny.
To my mind, Jackman is the glue that holds the entire production together. It has all the trappings of an epic, with lavish cinematography, art direction and costume design, but without a commanding lead it would all have gone to naught. Fortunately, Jackman is more than equal to the task at hand, and his Valjean is a marvel to behold. From his physical transformation to his soaring solos Jackman is every inch the star of this show. Sure, Hathaway, in her brief turn as Fantine, leaves quite a lasting impression and there are some other outstanding performances like that of Barks as the lovelorn Eponine, and child actor Daniel Huttleston as the pint-sized revolutionary Gavroche, but it's Jackman that people will remember when the lights come back on. There's a lot of talent going around; Wilkinson was actually the original Jean Valjean in the first stage production in West End and on Broadway, and his turn in the small but pivotal role of the bishop provides a wonderful way for him to leave his mark on the production he helped kick off many years ago. Redmayne and Seyfriend give creditable performances as Marius and Cosette. In just about every case, even those of the actors of whose performances I was not a fan, the intensity of the performance really shows.
There's been quite a bit of criticism of Russell Crowe's take on the self-righteous policeman Javert, and to be honest I do not think it's fair. Crowe is definitely outshone, quite far and away, by Jackman, Hathaway and a number of others but I do not echo the criticism that he is ill-suited for the production. There's actually a consistency to the way he sings and his character's personality; Javert being such a straight-laced policeman it makes sense for him to go through most of his life without the internal conflict that tears away at so man of the main characters. Of course, I'm not really going to great lengths to apologize for the man; he does belong to a band and he is a musician of some sort, so quite arguably he should have brought his A-game with him. Still, to my mind his performance was just fine; if nothing else, he did not drag the production down.
Apart from the actors/singers, I found the production itself to be rather breathtaking. While some of the set pieces were put to waste during a few of the song numbers with their gratuitous closeups, the attention to detail that went into the recreation of Paris in the early 19th century was still pretty evident, and there were a number of sweeping shots that helped emphasize for the people sitting in the movie house that this was not the kind of spectacle they could witness at the theater. The opening number of "Look Down," which features Valjean and his fellow prisoners hauling a shipwreck to shore, is a striking example of what is only possible in the movies.
Of course, there will probably be the usual crowd of people haughtily asserting that the film does not hold a candle to the musical, despite the inclusion of players from the musical such as Wilkinson as the bishop, Frances Rufelle, the original Eponine, as a prostitute, and feature film debutante Barks who has already done Eponine on West End. Well, they can cling to that belief all they want, really because there is absolutely no arguing with them. After all, they probably knew this film would be terrible before a single frame was even shot.
The thing about this film, though, is that by taking Victor Hugo's novel to a much broader audience than the musicals ever did, in a sense it embodies the spirit of the story as a love song to the masses of the disenfranchised and hopeless far more faithfully than its staged counterpart. It has, to paraphrase one of the best-known anthems from the film, made it that much easier for everyone to hear the people sing.
4.5/5
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