Went to see Les Miserables yesterday. I was a bit nervous having heard some mixed reviews already and because I had been listening to Chris question the casting for a month now. I didn’t need to be.
You should know, I’m a huge fan. I’ve seen it two or three times (can’t recall now), on Broadway, once at the roadshow in St. Louis and once when our local high school performed the “abbreviated” version. I used to listen to the soundtrack in the car, when the girls were little, so much so, that they knew the music and the story well before I took them the first time (it was their request to see it at the local high school too).
Now, to the criticism I’d heard. Did the actors in the movie have the same knock it out of the ballpark voices present on Broadway or the musical soundtrack? No. But I’m not sure they were meant to and here’s why I think they were not. In the show, no matter what is actually going on with regard to the drama on stage, these actors are belting out the songs. Fantine dying? No problem, she can still power through Come to Me. Not so in the movie. In the movie, their voices reflect the drama on screen. So they do break, they do falter and I think that’s okay. It’s more dramatic. I’d also heard somewhere that they weren’t lip syncing and then recording the songs in studio but instead were actually singing, and recording, on set as the acting occurred. Not sure if that’s true but it makes sense.
That said, Anne Hathaway as Fantine – wow! Who knew she could sing? Same goes for Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, a pleasant surprise. Samantha Barks as Eponine and Eddie Redmayne as Marius did not suck either – really excellent. And while Chris still insists Hugh Jackman was miscast as Jean Valjean, I disagree. I think he did a fine job and I loved how they aged him through the movie. Russel Crowe was fine, nothing exceptional. For me, the only real disappointment was Sacha Baron Cohen as the Innkeeper. The “staging” of Master of the House was excellent, but his performance in that number left me a little flat. I did appreciate his comedic timing though.
Here’s something I really did enjoy about the movie, even more so than the stage production. During many (if not all of the powerful solos), they used really tight shots on the actors. You get to see all the emotion play across their faces (again, Anne Hathaway was amazing). I don’t think that’s something you get to appreciate at the show unless you are fortunate enough to be in the first few rows. I thought it powerful.
It’s long – at about two hours, 45 minutes (not to mention the 25 minutes of coming attractions first), so be prepared. More than a few people ran for the bathrooms at the end (as unlike the show there is no intermission after One More Day). But it was three hours I thoroughly enjoyed and would consider seeing again (and again).
