Les Miserables: The Movie That Potentially Broke Me

I finally saw Les Miserables today.

There's really no way to describe how excited I was for this film. I literally cleared my schedule just so I could watch it on opening day. To borrow the words of Grantaire, "I am agog, I am aghast." (In a positive sense of course) I don't even know how to explain what I feel about it. To say that I loved it is an understatement. My cousin and I were laughing at the miserable pile of mush we've turned into after the movie. 

Overall, I think the movie is a great example of a film adaptation of a stage musical. In one of her promotional interviews, Anne Hathaway said that she didn't want to do the pretty version of the songs. I think this was a common intention of everyone behind this movie. Nothing about this movie is pretty. From the tattered clothes to the dingy Parisian streets and the gag-inducing sewers. The look of the production alone would make you feel...erm...miserable. Story-wise it had a valiant attempt at honoring the original Victor Hugo novel. Les Miz puritans would notice the many changes from the stage version. I think these changes worked though because they were able to address the loopholes of the stage story. Plus, the changes made a lot of sense. If anything, these changes just made the film, dare I say, better than the stage version. *gasp* But of course, the movie is not perfect. It does have its low points.

And now, I shall try to put into something coherent all these Les Miz thoughts running through my head right now. I'm going to put a cut on this because I can tell this is going to be long. 

Oh and if you haven't seen it (or the stage musical or read the book or just know the story in general), there will tons of spoilers ahead so read on with caution)

The Hits

Production Grandeur

As mentioned earlier, the overall production design is really impressive. From the first few frames alone, when the camera pans to the shot of a massive ship down to the rows of prisoners hulling it in, there was literal swelling in my chest. I wanted to cry. No kidding. And this was just the precedent of what you get to see in the entire film. If you're wondering how it was like to live amidst the turmoil of early 19th century France, then watch this film. At that scene where Valjean rescues Fauchelevent from the fallen cart and Javert is reminded of Valjean the prisoner, I noticed the brick wall behind Javert and how crooked, uneven, and chipped some of them were. And at that moment I remember thinking, "Maybe the town did not have enough government funding to fix those chipped bricks." It's silly but it's just amazing how much realism was put into every detail especially since this was in a sound stage. They actually had to build this set. 

Most notable for me was the Lovely Ladies and the barricade scenes. I know the Lovely Ladies scene is really meant to be depressing because it's supposed to show the lowest of lows for Fantine's character. But I normally just take amusement from the different whores. I think this film really put the scene into perspective though. The scene looked depressing, as it should be. It made me wish to never be able to relate to "I Dreamed A Dream". 

"On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricade rise"

I was also impressed with what they did with the barricade. In the stage, the barricade is normally this big ass barricade they could hardly climb on to. Impressive, yes. But when you think about it, this is supposed to be a makeshift fort built by schoolboys from whatever piece of furniture they can grab hold off. The barricade in the movie was realistically puny. Props for putting Gen. Lamarque's coffin on there too. "On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricade rise"...little details like this make big difference. 

Anne Hathaway

This is an obvious one. I don't think I really need to get into detail into this because it's pretty obvious how good she was as Fantine. Fantine is not really my favorite character. I think the musical romanticized her victim status. But holy hell, Anne Hathaway made me a believer in Fantine's misery. For a major character, she has the least screen time and she made the most out of that. I died when he died. Can someone just hand her the Oscar now?

The Originals

The Les Miz fangirl in me was squee-ing when Colm Wilkinson appeared as the Bishop. Being the original Jean Valjean, there's just something so symbolic about the Colm as the Bishop blessing Hugh as Valjean. 

Colm Wilkinson was not the only original Les Mis cast in this film though. Frances Rufelle, the original Eponine, was also there. She was one of the whores in Lovely Ladies. I knew she was going to be there but I haven't seen any promotional stuff with her in it so I did not know which of the whores she would be. So I was excited when I spotted her. 

Les Amis de l'ABC

I love the barricade boys. No, not because they always cast such good looking people to play them (ok fine, maybe partly because of that) but because I just love the dynamic of that group. Such passionate young men. And I think this dynamic is even more emphasized in the film. They're like a band of brothers fighting for a cause. 

Les Amis chillin' at Cafe Musain

Grantaire

Speaking of les amis, Enjolras has been my favorite but Grantaire is a revelation in this one. He's usually just a comical, sometimes annoying drunk in the musical and even a more useless character in the book. But I really like what George Blagden did for the character. I especially loved him in Red and Black. He has a lovely voice too. 

Eddie Redmayne's Marius 

I hate Marius. Ok, maybe not hate but he's my least favorite Les Miz character. In the musical especially, he seems so one dimentional. He falls in love, almost dies, and lives on happily ever after. That is really all that is to stage Marius. I've always agreed with Enjolras when he sings "Who cares about your lonely soul?" because he's really just a love struck young boy. But the way Eddie Redmayne played him made me not dislike him. I like that they tried to show a little of his back story of being a rich boy who emancipated himself from his family to fight against the monarchy. And that Empty Chairs and Empty Tables scene just really broke my heart. If that scene did not make you cry, you are not human. 

Hadley Fraser

Hadley and his moustache

This is a minor one but I was deeply affected by this. You know the Army General with the interesting looking moustache? That guy is played by Hadley Fraser. Hadley is a West End hottie actor who previously played Marius and Javert (I think) in West End runs of Les Miz. He also played Grantaire in the Les Miz 25th Anniversary concert with his BFF Ramin Karimloo (more on Ramin later). I was so conflicted when I recognized him because I know him most as Grantaire and it's so ironic for me to see him killing the barricade boys. In my head I was like, "how could you do that? You were one of them!" But then again, if you look at his face, you can see a slight hesitance about it. It's like he never really wanted to kill the boys but as the Army General, he needed to do it. So I give him props for that. 

Samantha Barks

I didn't really care much for her Eponine in the 25th Anniversary concert but I think she was really good in the movie. I think she definitely deserves the praises she's getting now. 

Russell Crowe's Acting

"Damned if I yield in the debt of a thief"

Yes, I'm putting this as hit. I've been very critical of Russell Crowe because Javert is my favorite character. I really loved Geoffrey Rush's Javert in the 1998 film because you really see Javert's internal struggle and that's what I love most about the character. When I heard the previews of Russell Crowe's singing I was really nervous because let's face it, he's not exactly the best singer out there. But singing aside, I think Russell Crowe had the role spot on. He did look the part. He has that "I am the law" glare. But in many scenes such as when he apologized to M. Madeleine for reporting him as Valjean, you can see that overpowering guilt in his eyes and that just gets me. My favorite scene though would have to be after the Final Battle when the bodies of les amis were lined up. He took his medal and pinned it on Gavroche. Such a powerful scene. It was so subtle but it just speaks volumes about the character. And that is why Russell Crowe's acting, despite my initial reluctance towards him and the not so good reviews about him, is actually a hit for me.  

Fantine and The Bishop at the Finale

In the stage finale, it is Fantine and Eponine who sing Valjean into the heavens. In the film, Eponine is cut and it is Fantine who sings to Valjean and leads her to the Bishop who basically welcome him to heaven. I never understood why the stage version had Eponine there in the first place. She hardly had any interaction with Valjean save for delivering the letter from Marius which was changed in the film version anyway. (So in the film, they never really directly interacted at all!) I always thought it was because the two women both sacrificed their lives for someone they loved. Fantine for Cosette and Eponine for Marius. But then again, didn't the barricade boys die for their country too? So it just made more sense to have the Bishop there instead of Eponine. The symbolism is much more poignant too. The Bishop created the first turning point in Valjean's life by turning him to do good. Likewise, Fantine was the reason for Valjean's second turning point by giving him Cosette. So it's just fitting that these two lead and welcome him to heaven. After all, it it were not for them, he'd probably have gone on with his thieving ways. 

And now onto the not so hits.

The Misses

The Pacing
Victor Hugo's book is 365 chapters long. (It is actually nicknamed as "the brick" because it looks like one). The stage musical is approximately 3 hours long. So just imagine the wealth of material that was needed to be compressed into the 2 and a half hour movie. Some songs were sacrificed such as Dog Eats Dog, which is fine because that's not really a crucial one. A lot of songs were shortened such as Turning, Little People, and even les amis' ultimate anthem, Red and Black was cut short. This particularly bothered me because the way they cut it felt weird. The cut felt obvious and I don't think it's because I knew the song beforehand because the cuts in other songs didn't bother me. This one did though. Plus they cut my favorite les amis exchange where Enjolras says "Grantaire put that bottle down!" so I specifically disliked that.

Aside from the cuts in the songs, some of the scene transitions feel very sudden. I could feel the time pressure they were on. It felt too obvious that they needed to squeeze in all that material into an acceptable movie length. I understand the intention though. Sitting through more than 3 hours of people wallowing in misery would be emotional suicide.

Aaron Tveit's Enjolras

Aaron as Enjolras with his perpetual frown

My favorite Enjolras is Ramin Karimloo because he is yummy a convincing student revolutionary leader. I'd definitely come when he calls, pun intended. At the same time, he's charismatic. Although Enjolras ' character tends to be revolution driven, it wouldn't hurt to humanize the role a little. Aaron Tveit, I felt, didn't seem like that. He's all work, no play kind. If Aaron and Ramin are two student leaders and I'd have to choose between them, I'd go with Ramin because I may be in love with him he seems more personable. I feel like with Aaron, I should think twice before bringing up anything non-barricade related. I'd give him one thing though, looks wise, he may be the perfect Enjolras

I'm putting the photo of Ramin as Enjolras here just because <3

M. Gillenormand
I really think his inclusion was unnecessary. I think they were trying to establish Marius' character background which was discussed more extensively in the book, perhaps to give him more depth. But I didn't think it was necessary to put his grandfather in especially if they were already trying to trim down the length of the material. They could've just implied it. They even gave him a part in Everyday which was really very forgettable.

Thenardiers
I was excited about having Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers. But honestly, they kinda fell flat for me. It wasn't bad but they weren't as hilarious as I expected them too be. It's baffling actually because I found it funnier when the Thenardiers were pretend thieving on stage compared to when they were actually thieving on film. I'll give it to Sacha Baron Cohen though for having the only French sounding accent in the entire cast.

I did enjoy this part though. I think he took some inspiration from Matt Lucas' Thenardier  in this one. 

Russell Crowe's Singing
Let's face it, Russell Crowe was the weakest singer among the lot. Definitely no Philip Quast. It was pretty clear that he struggled with this kind of singing. I felt a cringe every time he had sung dialogue. His voice was very nasal and he seemed to have a lot of trouble with the pacing of the lines. That scene of The Robbery/Javert's Intervention bothered me a lot. He did ok in Stars though. It wasn't anything remarkable but at least he didn't butcher it. And it felt less forced too. In Javert's suicide, he did a lot better which makes me believe that Russell Crowe is not a bad singer. After all, wasn't he in a band some time ago? But this kind of singing isn't for him.


But despite the hits, I liked the film A LOT. Obviously I am obsessed with it. I had a headache after watching because all the stifled sobbing in the theater. 

So, I think that's all (for now). Gosh this was long. (Starts adding pictures to distract from the senseless ramble)