As a huge fan of the 28-year-running musical, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of Les Miserables. It was most of what a good adapted musical should be: dramatic, visually stunning and true to the original.
The famous story focuses on an escaped convict, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), and his journey to separate himself from his tainted past and start anew. Along the way he agrees to care for the child of the dying Fantine (Anne Hathaway), continually escapes the grasp of persistent police officer Javert (Russell Crowe), finds himself among revolutionaries in the center of Paris, and ultimately realizes that “to love another person is to see the face of God.”
Between rare moments of comedy involving the ludicrous innkeepers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) who first care for Fantine’s daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), the film is really about the miserable Parisians in the 1800s, including underpaid factory-worker-turned-prostitute Fantine. No one could play the raw sadness of a desperate mother better than Hathaway. Her stunning rendition of one of the most well-known ballads in the musical, “I Dreamed a Dream,” was heartbreaking enough to snag her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Real vocal talent should have been a factor in casting, but it appears some roles were given to actors who could sing, not singers who could act. You would expect Jackman, with his background in Broadway, to be a more talented singer, but his mediocre and forced vocal performance casts a shadow on his excellent acting. Even worse, Crowe was obviously not prepared to have as much of a vocal role as he did. His timid musical numbers brought a weakness to Javert, a menacing and unforgiving character the audience is supposed to fear. Luckily, the supporting cast offered exceptional performances, including Samantha Barks’ downtrodden Eponine singing about her unreturned love for Marius in “On My Own” and Aaron Tveit’s brilliance as the rebellious leader Enjolras.
Aside from Crowe’s unfortunate presence, the first portion of the film was enchanting. Fantine’s sheer pain as she was forced to become a “lovely lady” is tear-jerking, and Valjean’s connection to her was emotional. The first half’s darkness stands in stark opposition to the Parisian brightness of the second.
The second half, which starts off exciting with Enjolras and Marius (Eddie Redmayne) leading a group of “angry men” to create an uprising in the city, slows quickly as Marius falls for the now-teenage Cosette. The love affair, opposed by Marius’ companion Eponine, provides for mediocre duets that contain less than half of the emotion needed to sustain an audience. The uprising that follows is a bit over-the-top but still provides for a rousing scene. A third crowd favorite, Valjean’s prayer for Marius’ “Bring Him Home,” was upsettingly lackluster, as Jackman stayed stagnant through the whole performance and never reached the “goosebumps” point many are used to experiencing in the musical.
Valjean’s death and the reprise of “Do You Hear the People Sing” in the last scene ties the two halves together, as all the characters who had died welcome Valjean into salvation. Although Les Mis could have been better-crafted, it served its purpose as a grandiose big-screen adaptation of one of the most popular musicals of the late-20th century.
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