Movie Review: Les Misérables

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.