Lifestyle: Les Miserables - A Movie Review

Les Miserables an adaptation from Victor Hugo’s eponymous book, a classic tale of humanity, love and loss set against the backdrop of a political uprising in France, the French Revolution. It is directed by Tom Hooper.

Les Miserable is a story of a reformed man, Jean Valjean (Jackman) and a duty bound policeman, Javert (Crowe). Valjean, imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf to save his sister’s son, jumps parole.

Valjean is astonished and moved by the Christ-like charity of the Bishop (Colm Wilkinson), who takes him in, and forgives him for attempting to steal silverware of the Church, making him a present of it and protecting him from arrest. Valjean realize the gesture of the Bishop which changed him to become a better man.

After seven years, Valjean becomes a mayor and a factory owner. Then he bumps into police officer, Javert, who recognises him as the prisoner. And with the belief, “Once a thief, always a thief”, Javert trails him.

Fantine (Anne Hathaway) on the other hand works as a poor employee of his factory and her daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), who falls in love with revolutionary firebrand Marius (Eddie Redmayne) just as Paris erupts in a bloody revolution. Valjean must unite the lovers before making his final reckoning with Javert.

What makes Les Miserables memorable? Is the melodramatic musical fare thatt is visually packed with emotion; filled with grief, romance, humility and humour. The film charms its audience with passion, sincerity and an overwhelming force of the characters.  The physical strength of this movie is impressive: an awe-inspiring and colossal effort, just like Valjean’s as he lifts the flagpole at the beginning of the film.

Crowe offers the most open, human performance as a cruel, unbending law-officer and royalist spy. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are great as the dodgy innkeepers M and Mme Thenardier, respectively. Other moments are less up to the mark. Hathaway’s fervent rendition of “I dreamed a dream”, in extreme close-up, has been much admired, but her performance and appearance is a bit Marie Antoinette-ish. Her poverty-stricken character is supposed to have pitifully sold her teeth to a street dentist. .

The cinematography and production value are very good. Especially with Jackman hiking over mountaintops, and heaving a ship into a vast drydock alongside hundreds of other slaves, but apart from this, much of the film’s final act is confined to one cramped studio set which represents downtown Paris.The action should be momentous, considering that a revolution is brewing, but instead it seems paltry, and altogether more like a stage show than a film. 

Over all it is hugely enjoyable, powerfully emotional musical with superb songs, stunning set design and a series of brilliant performances from a note-perfect cast. It is also spectacular to look at and often poignantly beautiful to listen to, this won't disappoint the millions who have sighed at the stage play.

C'est magnifique.:)

My rate 4 out of 5 stars.