And second, I'll put this out there right now: I'm not know as a prolific follower of musicals. My taste in such has stretched as far as South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police, so not exactly the higher end of the spectrum when it comes to the apparently cultured and sophisticated world of musical cinema. But when a film comes out with a promising cast, based on a phenomenally successful theatre production and a tidy budget to boot, I was more than willing to break my usual tastes and go see Tom Hooper's big screen version of Les Misérables.
The film tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-con who strives to turn his life around, taking on the daughter of a woman forced into prostitution after losing a job in his factory. Valjean's task is made no easier as he is persistently tracked by Javert, a dogged and much feared police inspector, who is also attempting to overseer and thwart an uprising of the angry youths of Paris. As the title suggests, this is not a particularly happy tale, more a collection of people whose lives are a little more riddled with strife than sparkles. Valjean is perpetually dealt a poor hand in life, Fantine loses her job, her daughter, her dignity and more, Enjolras is attempting to spark an uprising against inconceivable odds, and even Javert begins to question his usually unshakable professionalism. So yes, there aren't too many characters who come out of this one smelling of sunshine and roses.
You know those musicals where you get about 5-10 minutes of actual talking with a song thrown in for good measure in between those spells? Yeah, this film is most certainly not one of those. This is 158 minutes of almost constant singing. Now I'm definitely not a fan of that in almost every other example you could come up with, however, in this case it actually goes by very well. I'll not pretend that it doesn't feel a little cringey, because it does in places, there are some things you simply don't need to sing, and it does occasionally feel as if the characters would break out their falsetto just to announce that they're going for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. But, in the bigger picture, the singing works very well, and certainly adds the right emotional connection to the physical actions going on underneath all that lung squeezing. Also, in terms of singing ability, I was pleasantly surprised by the talent displayed by a great deal of the cast, with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway quite probably being the most notable of the bunch. Russell Crowe does a good job of it too, although he possibly seems to try and be too clever with it...though I naturally wouldn't be saying that to his face.
This will quite probably be the film that finally gives Hugh Jackman a bit of a more steady reputation as an actor. Whilst being a lead man for the best part of a decade, his best performances have all come whilst sporting pointy hair and having retractable claws, but his performance in Les Mis is a very solid one. Whilst not always the main focus of the story, he is the consistent backbone to it, and if it were not for him, we wouldn't be interested in the other subplots. Valjean is the piece holding the different characters together, and Jackman duly turns in a very powerful performance to keep us interested in what happens to everyone else, without him, this movie would almost certainly not succeed. Russell Crowe as Javert provides an intimidating authority figure for Valjean and the youths the rebel against, but he also adds a subtle softness to the character, and we're never quite sure whether his emotions are getting the better of him, which is also key to the whole film. So yes, Crowe is also very good here, but again...the singing. Then we have Anne Hathaway, playing the tragic Fantine, who goes from sweet and innocent to reluctant, depressed prostitute in a matter of screen minutes, but displays the concerns of years of suffering on her expression which immediately draws you in. Arguably one of the finest performances given by someone on screen for such a short period of time in recent years. Supporting roles from Amanda Seyfried as Cosette (daughter of Fantine) and Eddie Redmayne (Marius) do a job nicely, playing out the roles of lovers often separated by unfortunate circumstances, as do Sacha Baron Cohen (Thenardier) and Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thenardier), although they do seem to be places exactly the same characters here as they did in Sweeney Todd, but with a slightly Frenched up Cockney accent. A special mention, I think, needs to go to Aaron Tveit, who portrays Enjolras, the leader of the uprising in Paris. He captures the very essence of the angry young man his character embodies, and is so very single-minded when it comes to revolution, that his emotion is purely drawn from how his plan is progressing; a very enjoyable and powerful performance.
Visually speaking, the film is no less than what you'd expect for a $61 million budget, but it really is spectacular. Right from the off, we're treated to massive scenes of enormous ships being towed by slaves, Parisian streets flooded with colour and people, and forests that seem to have fallen directly from the pages of Hans Christian Andersen's stories. The film uses colour particularly well too, with red and black being key throughout (as one of the songs even mentions), and it all adds up to a visually magnificent spectacle, to fit nicely alongside the vast amount of powerful (if occasionally over-the-top) singing.
4.5/5 - I know it's cheating to bring decimals into this, but there's logic behind it; this film is very good. I was happily pulled along through the whole story, and never once felt bored or uninterested, despite the length. I very much enjoyed the performances and the story itself. I even enjoyed pretty much every song in the thing. The only thing I can take away from it is the fact that the singing really is constant, and seems unnecessary in places, which made me cringe every so often. But don't let this take anything major away from the whole picture, it really is a sensationally good movie. Anyone put off by the fact that is a musical is missing out on one of the best films of the year. Definitely go see it.
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