As a cinephile, my least favorite genres are easily romance and musicals; mainly because both genres have become way to cliché over the past years. However, I was simply blown away by this movie and found this movie to be one of my favorites of 2012.
What surprised me about this film is that this is no ordinary musical where the actors will lip sync out of nowhere and everyone in the film will sing in a Glee-ful style. The cast in this movie sang most of the dialogue (around 98%) and this is what caught me off guard. Not only are the casts of this film singing, but they are putting out raw performances and I mean that these people are acting and singing at the same time, delivering raw emotions as these actors/actresses are singing. What even surprised me more was that I never felt that frustration or this sort of boredom as the characters are singing. All of the songs are sung to tell what is going on with the story, to present emotion toward the characters, and to easily add emotion toward the songs. All of these songs are extremely relevant for the plot and I have to admit, despite of not being a huge fan of musicals, to enjoy and like the music.
I have watched the 1998 dramatization of this story, starring Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman, Geoffrey Rush, and Claire Dames. Although the performances in that movie were good, I found the performances in this movie to over-exceed the performance, power and emotion delivered by the cast in the 1998 version. Many of the casts not only have nice vocals, but their performances were great and it absolutely blew me away. There were 3 main people that simply stole the show and they are Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Samantha Barks as Eponine, and easily Anne Hathaway as Fantine. I cannot say how much I enjoyed watching these 3 in the film. Hugh Jackman really brought the emotion toward the character and really made the character likable. Samantha Barks, who made her film debut in this, presented great vocals and as Hugh did, added emotion toward her character. Then comes Anne Hathaway who despite only appearing for a very short amount of time, caused me to cry enough to fill a water bottle. Her character is very tragic and watching her give out that raw performance while singing "I Dreamed A Dream" just made my eyes hurt because the amount of tears shed. She deserves every critical acclaim and praise and definitely deserves an award for her role.
Now if there is one actor that I should mention, that should be Russel Crowe. I have heard many complaints and have seen many fingers point Crowe to be the weakest link toward the film; I have to disagree. He is simply overshadowed by Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway to where he looks amateurish compared to the two. I actually didn't mind his performance and thought he presented a nice baritone voice for the character. Sure, he is not amazing and only presents a baritone range, but that doesn't mean that he sucked. He gave a good performance and did a good job with his portrayal as Javert.
However, despite the film being very powerful and surprisingly entertaining for me, I did find some flaws within the film that did sort of bugged me. I dug the whole plot of Les Miserables and agree that it is one of the greatest stories out there; however, I found the third part of the film, the plot about the French Revolution, to be not as strong as the first two parts. Personally, I found the love triangle between Cosette, Marius and Eponine to be stretched out a little too long. I understand that it is part of the story and I did enjoy it, but compared to the first two, it wasn't as strong and didn't really give me that strong impact as the others. Second has to be Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen's role as Thénardiers. I actually enjoyed their part as they are introduced and they had a very catchy tune that they sung. However, their role in the third part was sort of out of place; they appeared as a comic relief in an emotional scene that does ruin the mood at a certain degree. I do, however, like their performances and they did a good job portraying as these characters.
Director Tom Hooper easily brought enough emotion, character depth, and power to this musical to where the film had brought me into tears throughout various moments. I will easily admit that this film had brought me to tears throughout various moments and had me simply enjoy this film from start to finish. This film easily got me hooked and not only surprised me, but presented a musical that I actually enjoyed watching. It does take awhile to get used to the words being sung, but despite that, this film is worth watching. The only gripe that people might give is the length, which is close to 3 hrs. However, the plot is absolutely amazing, the songs help tell the story and the performances, especially from the 3 that I have mentioned earlier, made the film work. Even if you are not a fan of musicals, you may be surprised to find yourself not hate or even like this film.
What surprised me about this film is that this is no ordinary musical where the actors will lip sync out of nowhere and everyone in the film will sing in a Glee-ful style. The cast in this movie sang most of the dialogue (around 98%) and this is what caught me off guard. Not only are the casts of this film singing, but they are putting out raw performances and I mean that these people are acting and singing at the same time, delivering raw emotions as these actors/actresses are singing. What even surprised me more was that I never felt that frustration or this sort of boredom as the characters are singing. All of the songs are sung to tell what is going on with the story, to present emotion toward the characters, and to easily add emotion toward the songs. All of these songs are extremely relevant for the plot and I have to admit, despite of not being a huge fan of musicals, to enjoy and like the music.
I have watched the 1998 dramatization of this story, starring Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman, Geoffrey Rush, and Claire Dames. Although the performances in that movie were good, I found the performances in this movie to over-exceed the performance, power and emotion delivered by the cast in the 1998 version. Many of the casts not only have nice vocals, but their performances were great and it absolutely blew me away. There were 3 main people that simply stole the show and they are Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Samantha Barks as Eponine, and easily Anne Hathaway as Fantine. I cannot say how much I enjoyed watching these 3 in the film. Hugh Jackman really brought the emotion toward the character and really made the character likable. Samantha Barks, who made her film debut in this, presented great vocals and as Hugh did, added emotion toward her character. Then comes Anne Hathaway who despite only appearing for a very short amount of time, caused me to cry enough to fill a water bottle. Her character is very tragic and watching her give out that raw performance while singing "I Dreamed A Dream" just made my eyes hurt because the amount of tears shed. She deserves every critical acclaim and praise and definitely deserves an award for her role.
Now if there is one actor that I should mention, that should be Russel Crowe. I have heard many complaints and have seen many fingers point Crowe to be the weakest link toward the film; I have to disagree. He is simply overshadowed by Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway to where he looks amateurish compared to the two. I actually didn't mind his performance and thought he presented a nice baritone voice for the character. Sure, he is not amazing and only presents a baritone range, but that doesn't mean that he sucked. He gave a good performance and did a good job with his portrayal as Javert.
However, despite the film being very powerful and surprisingly entertaining for me, I did find some flaws within the film that did sort of bugged me. I dug the whole plot of Les Miserables and agree that it is one of the greatest stories out there; however, I found the third part of the film, the plot about the French Revolution, to be not as strong as the first two parts. Personally, I found the love triangle between Cosette, Marius and Eponine to be stretched out a little too long. I understand that it is part of the story and I did enjoy it, but compared to the first two, it wasn't as strong and didn't really give me that strong impact as the others. Second has to be Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen's role as Thénardiers. I actually enjoyed their part as they are introduced and they had a very catchy tune that they sung. However, their role in the third part was sort of out of place; they appeared as a comic relief in an emotional scene that does ruin the mood at a certain degree. I do, however, like their performances and they did a good job portraying as these characters.
Director Tom Hooper easily brought enough emotion, character depth, and power to this musical to where the film had brought me into tears throughout various moments. I will easily admit that this film had brought me to tears throughout various moments and had me simply enjoy this film from start to finish. This film easily got me hooked and not only surprised me, but presented a musical that I actually enjoyed watching. It does take awhile to get used to the words being sung, but despite that, this film is worth watching. The only gripe that people might give is the length, which is close to 3 hrs. However, the plot is absolutely amazing, the songs help tell the story and the performances, especially from the 3 that I have mentioned earlier, made the film work. Even if you are not a fan of musicals, you may be surprised to find yourself not hate or even like this film.