The Sounds and Sights of Les Misérables
I recently went to go see the movie adaption of the musical Les Misérables. Let me begin by saying that adapting musicals for the
screen is difficult. For some reason, Hollywood has not been able to do this
successfully lately, at least in this production; all the actors could sing relatively well—the 2004 adaption of The Phantom of the Opera has issues with this concept. However, there were other issues
in the movie.
First, I understand that the cast was good looking—Hugh
Jackman played the protagonist Jean
Valjean and Russell Crowe played the antagonist Inspector Javert—but that does not mean that a close-up is needed
for nearly every shot of the movie. By having so many close-ups, the audience
lost a sense of the actors’ playing spaces. For a movie with a budget of sixty-one
million dollars, every crevice of the barricade and shots of the city of Paris
deserved screen time. The movie had about a total of seven wide shots.
What did the rest of the ship where Fantine—played by Anne
Hathaway—poured out her heart look like? How big was the barricade? What did
Paris look like during the student’s revolt? How high was the bridge in
comparison to the river? These were all questions that arose due to the
close-cut frame chosen. It would have been nice to have a better sense of the
sets and to be able to appreciate the craft that went into their design and
creation.
Additionally, by primarily seeing head and upper body shots
the costumes and actors interacting with the space was lost. What did the rest
of Cosette’s—played by Amanda Seyfried—dress look like? The finer details were
lost and it was a pity.
The musical, as a whole, is not the best musical in the
world. It has some amazing songs—I
Dreamed a Dream and On My Own—and
some less than amazing songs but lacks in some plot areas. Most of the subplots found in
Victor Hugo’s book Les Misérables—which the musical is based on—offers insight to the complexity of the society and help with the plot development. In
this adaption, Marius’—played by Eddie
Redmayne—back-story was lightly touched upon—this does not happen in the play
and was refreshing.
In 1998, a dramatized version and non-musical adaption
of Les Misérables came
out—starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. That production filled in the
lacking plot of the musical and created a greater sense of the characters and
their relationships, in compassion to the lacking character development and
arcs in the musical. It would have been wonderful if this adaption could have
combined the best part of the musical and dramatized version to create a full
palate instead of a half colored painting.
One of the artistic
choices in the new adaption was for the actors to take their time and fully
allow their emotions to overtake them. This was wonderful but it terms of the
clarity of the voices words were sometimes lost or unclear. Actress Samantha
Barks who played Éponine did a fantastic job of not only allowing her emotions
to fully take over but her voice was clear as day.
Overall, the cast did a wonderful job singing the music of Les
Misérables but the filming
of the movie lacked. The soundtrack—which will only be highlights of the
movie—will be enjoyable when released but that is all.
