Les Mis review

Warning: Spoilers and nit-picking ahead!

Overall, I thought they did a really good job with the movie.  Having the actors sing it live as they filmed gave it a raw immediacy that suited the material.  Hugh Jackman was very good, as was Anne Hathaway.  Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were perfect for their roles.  Samantha Barks as Éponine was wonderful, and I hope that she gets a film career out of this.  A lot of people seemed to dislike Eddie Redmayne, who plays Marius, and his voice is sort of funny, but I thought he nailed “Empty Chairs” emotionally.  And of course, Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop of Digne was all that one would hope.

On the other hand, Russell Crowe can either sing or act but apparently not both at once, and Amanda Seyfried didn’t have the pipes for Cosette – she could hit the notes, but only breathily and briefly, nothing like the lyric soprano for which the part was written.  The kid who played Gavroche was cute, but I wasn’t impressed by his acting.

One thing that I particularly loved was that elements from the book which had not been used in the musical were re-introduced here.  The first of these is at the very beginning, when Valjean and the other prisoners are working to save a ship in a storm.  Fantine’s teeth, Cosette’s doll, M. Fauchelevant in the convent, Marius’s grandfather, ‘Ponine stopping a bullet aimed at Marius, Grantaire pushing through to die next to the cornered Enjolras – all from the novel.  The fact that they used it as well as the show for source material really earned my respect.

That said, there were also some changes that I did not understand.  Having to drop verses of certain songs for time, that makes sense – the original show ran over three hours before they cut it down to avoid having to pay the orchestra overtime.  But there were places where lines were swapped around in ways that seemed completely unnecessary and served only to ruin the rhyme scheme, such as “I am the mayor of this town/I run a business of repute”.  That just seems pointless.  And while I get that they had to add a song for Oscar-bait, I thought that “Suddenly” was nowhere near up to the standard of the rest of the show.

I was quite startled and upset about the absence of ‘Ponine from Valjean’s death scene, but when I think about it, it kind of makes sense.  She provides visual and vocal balance onstage, but Valjean didn’t actually know her, so there would be no reason for her ghost to appear and guide him to Heaven.  Having the Bishop welcome him as he crossed the threshold, though – that was absolutely perfect.

I’m of mixed feelings about the camera work – it was very unimaginative, but that mostly took the form of being right in the face of an actor singing a solo, giving them the chance to shine instead of overshadowing their performance with fancy tricks.  I did hate the editing in the group numbers like “One Day More” and the reprise of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” – it skipped from person to person in a jerky sort of way, although I’m not sure what else they could have done to let the audience see who all was singing.  A collections of cameos sharing the screen would probably have been worse.  It wasn’t until the final scene, in which the reprise is sung in bright sunlight, that you realize how unrelievedly dreary the rest of the film has been – and that’s exactly right.

The sets were excellent, as were the costumes (with the inexplicable exception of Enjolras not having his red vest).  Cosette’s dressing gown was a change from the show, but it was exquisite, and the rest of the time she was very traditionally dressed.  ‘Ponine’s outfits were just what a Broadway fan would expect to see, and of course so were Javert’s uniforms, the National Guard coat, and the assorted rags.  I’m not sure why they put Fantine in pink instead of blue, but whatever.

Some of the hair and face issues, they couldn’t help – I had been concerned from the first that Jackman’s long face is much more typical of how Javert is cast, and ditto Crowe’s broader face for Valjean.  And Jackman wore muttonchops rather than a full beard, which I suppose might have been more period, but would it have killed them to have his hair go white as he aged?  And I’ll say it once again, FANTINE IS SUPPOSED TO BE BLONDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Although I suppose it would have looked rather dreadful with Hathaway’s coloring, and she was unquestionably otherwise perfect for the role.)

All in all, I think that this adaptation was a success, and that it will be well-rewarded at Oscar time.  I will probably want to add the DVD to my collections – but not the soundtrack.  In most cases the power and beauty of the music came second to the intensity of the acting, which is okay when you’re talking about the difference between seeing someone live way down on a stage and seeing someone who had the camera right up in their face.  That works when you’re getting the visuals along with the sound – but for music only, I’ll stick with the Complete Symphonic or one of the cast albums.  (Not the 25^th Anniversary Concert, though – that Jonas kid who they had as Marius sucked, and when they brought the original cast out at the end Michael Ball totally blew him away.)

My grade: A-