Movie Review: Les Miserables

Movie Review:  Lés Misérables

** 1/2 stars out of ****

I remember when I first saw the trailer for Les Misérables.  It featured a broken, Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream."  It was the first time that a movie trailer gave me a lump in my throat.  Right then and there I decided that I needed to see this movie.  

Now, I am not a Les Miz fanatic.  I have seen the musical a couple of times and the non-muiscal film with Liam Neeson once.  I have also read Victor Hugo's, epic, door stop of a novel.  Musicals have had an uphill battle at the box office.  For every Chicago, there is a Rock of Ages.  For every Mamma Mia!, there is a Rent.  Les Miz seemed to have thought about that problem.  They hired Tom Hooper, the Oscar winning director of The King's Speech.  They hired actors who could act and carry a tune (for the most part), Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, just to name a few.  Hooper even had the actors sing live, rather than lip synch to pre recorded tracks, in order to make the emotions in the songs feel more real.  It seemed like all the elements were there to make one of the greatest musicals ever committed to film.  So, why did I leave the theater feeling empty?

First, if you are unfamiliar with the plot, here is a brief synopsis:  This is the story of Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for 19 years, for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family.  There, he toils under the watchful eye of Inspector Javert, a man who has a very black and white notion of right and wrong.  Valjean is released from prison on parole and after being pardoned by a priest he attempts to steal from decides to change his life.  He breaks parole and reinvents himself.  He is the mayor of a French town and a gracious, magnanimous factory worker, until Javert shows back up.  The rest of the movie is Javert chasing after Valjean, while he cares for, Cosette, the daughter of one of his factory workers who he feels that he failed.

Let's start with some of the things that I think work with the movie.  Even if you hate musicals and you hated the movie, you have to admit that Anne Hathaway, as doomed factory worker turned prostitute Fantine, gives the performance of her career.  In a relatively brief time on screen, Hathaway embodies Fantine.  You feel for her.  You root for her, even though you know the only way for her story to end is in tragedy.  Fantine's story spirals rather quickly.  She goes from being fired as a factory worker to selling her teeth, hair, and then body in quick succession, all to provide for her illegitimate daughter, Cosette.  After a particularly harrowing scene I won't spoil here, Hathaway performs the full version of "I Dreamed a Dream."  The full version of the song is one hundred times more gut wrenching, heart breaking, and soul destroying than the snippet that plays in the trailer.  It is also here where I think the live singing works the best.  I hope that Hathaway is at home right now practicing her Oscar acceptance speech.

The female actors really shine in the film.  Samantha Banks makes her film debut as Éponine, daughter to crooked innkeepers, the Thénardiers.  She is in love with wannabe Revolutionary, Marius, played by Eddie Redmayne.  She performs the musicals arguably second best number, "On My Own," barefoot in the rain on the streets of Paris.  When her voice cracks, your heart aches for her.  This is the second best moment of live singing in the film.  She is on screen for about the same time as Hathaway, maybe a bit longer, but after Fantine, she is what stays with you.

The film is not all darkness and heaviness, there are some moments of much needed lightness and levity. They are provided by the Thénardiers, played by Helena Bonham Carter and Sascha Baron Cohen.  Their big number, "Master of the House," is the one that you will leave the theater  humming.  It is boisterous and hilarious and every time the movie starts to go a little too dark or too depressing, the Thénardiers show back up to prove that life has some light too.  

The movie does have some issues.  One of the biggest ones is Russell Crowe and his singing voice.  Saying it is not great is being charitable.  I was sort of surprised because Crowe was the lead singer of a band called 30 Odd Foot Grunts.  This may just not be the style of music that Crowe excels at.  It's unfortunate that the filmmakers decided to go for a name actor that could kind of sing, rather than a Broadway actor, who could act and sing well.  This would have made all the difference.  It's hard to focus on what Crowe is singing about when his facial expressions when he is hitting a high note make him look like he is struggling with a particularly difficult bowel movement.

Crowe makes a strong case for why they should have used pre recorded tracks or maybe a mixture of both.  It feels like a lot of the time that Crowe is so focused on singing the song that he forgets to act.  That makes his performance and the film suffer, especially when he is acting opposite other people, specifically Jackman.

I mentioned earlier, that Hathaway and Banks have a huge impact on you in the short time that they are on screen and that is good, but it's also bad, since Javert and Valjean's relationship has the opposite effect on you.  Theirs is the focal relationship of the film, but it's hard to really connect with that.  When Crowe and Jackman are on screen together there is no passion between them.  I don't mean romantic passion, but the passion that should exist between two people who are so connected.  Javert is obsessed with Valjean, but you don't see any of that in Crowe's eyes, body language, anything.  Jackman does what he can, but there is not a lot he can do, when he is getting almost nothing from his scene partner.  The central relationship being so underdeveloped and under acted is what stalls the film. It is what makes it an OK film, rather than a great one. 

Bottom Line:  Everything is in place to ensure that Les Misérables excels but it stops just short and never really fulfills the potential that is there.  You should see the movie for the performances from Anne Hathaway and Samantha Banks, and to a lesser degree Jackman, Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter.  It's not a film that that I would encourage you to rush out and see, unless you, like me, like to be informed come Oscar night.