Podcast Episode 5: All About "Les Miserables"

After months (if not years) of anticipation, "Les Miserables" has finally been released into theatres nationwide. Jared, Jackie, Jessica, and Christopher have all seen the film, and they get together to discuss its pros and cons. How does "Les Miz" rank when compared with the great stage-to-screen adaptations? Do Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway really deserve all of the Oscar buzz they've been getting? What happened to Samantha Banks' waist? All these topics and many more are discussed on Episode 5 of the Broadway, Etc. podcast.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

Movie Review:  Les Miserables

Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, the most impressive of the highly accomplished stars of Les Miserables.

 

Musical theatre fans everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief.  The long awaited big screen adaptation of Les Miserables is not just a good movie musical but a great one, working as both a successful adaptation and a strong film in its own right.  Tom Hopper’s lovingly crafted epic may have a few faults, but they are mere nitpicks in a film that does so much right with what could have gone so very wrong.

The plot of Les Miserables, the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel, tells the story of convicted thief Jean Valjean and his lifelong struggle towards redemption in 19^th century France.  After breaking his parole, Valjean goes into hiding and eventually meets disgraced factory worker Fantine before becoming the guardian of her daughter Cosette.  The pair moves to Paris, where Cosette falls in love with student revolutionary Marius right before he spearheads a violent uprising against the Parisian elite.  All the while, Valjean is relentlessly pursued by the rigid Inspector Javert, the one man who knows Valjean’s past and could see him locked away forever.

For those who wondered how Hopper and screenwriter William Nicholson would condense the three-hour pop opera into a typical movie runtime, the short answer is they didn’t.  Although a couple of verses and some incidental music have been trimmed, every musical number from the stage version is represented (even “Turning”).  The order has been tweaked, but as in West Side Story these changes feel organic and are often for the best.  Hopper and Nicholson have even found room for a new song, “Suddenly,” which illustrates the instant connection and responsibility Valjean feels for young Cosette.  It may not be equal to the greatest pieces of Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil’s score, but it works as a nice character moment and a welcome change of pace from all the bombastic power ballads.

The transfer from stage to screen does reveal some flaws in Les Miserables’ construction, as elements that go unquestioned in the theatre feel underwritten on the big screen.  The reasons behind the student uprising that forms the crux of the second half are never satisfactory explained (something about “the people”), and the love triangle between Cosette, Marius, and street urchin Eponine is underexplored.  But while some details could stand fleshing out, the emotional truth of the story remains intact and powerful, and those prone to tears should definitely bring some tissues.

The star-studded cast is uniformly excellent, even those with zero musical or theatrical experience.  Hugh Jackman anchors the movie with his innate charisma and a fine flair for the dramatic, with his expressive face conveying the depth of Valjean’s internal conflict.  His voice does sound a wee bit strained on the high notes, but I can’t think of another movie star better qualified to tackle such a mammoth role.  And if we’re going to get really nitpicky, they probably could have aged Jackman more for the movie’s final act, although the actor’s expressive eyes go a long way towards conveying Valjean’s growing weariness.

The true revelation among the cast is Anne Hathaway’s devastating turn as Fantine, the factory girl who resorts to prostitution in order to support herself and her child.  Hathaway pulls out all the stops for her bravura performance, committing to the role physically and emotionally in a way few actresses could manage.  In a film full of big songs her “I Dreamed a Dream” is the showstopper, a gut-wrenching depiction of a woman with nothing more to lose.  Hathaway is a guaranteed Oscar nominee, and it’s unfortunate the constraints of the story keep her from being in more of the movie.  Whenever she does appear, it is pure movie magic.

Russell Crowe does an excellent job as the relentless Inspector Javert, although the role’s restrained nature keeps him from cutting loose the way his costars can.  Crowe possesses an unexpectedly strong singing voice, and while his strict adherence to the written rhythms is initially jarring in comparison to everyone else’s free-form recitative, it ultimately works as a character choice which further illustrates his unbending nature.  Amanda Seyfried has surprisingly little to do as Cosette (while none of her material has been cut, the role feels much more substantial in the stage version), and while a fine actress her lightning-quick vibrato is the one vocal quirk this reviewer can’t quite overlook.  Seyfried does have excellent chemistry with Eddie Redmayne’s Marius, and the young actor’s ease in the role goes a long way towards making the second half of the film work.

Samantha Banks’ Eponine is gloriously sung and looks properly pensive, although her underwritten character arc doesn’t leave as much of an impression as it could have.  Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are perfectly cast as the wily Thenardier and his wife, and their scene stealing antics provide some much-needed levity amid all the angst and suffering.  Of all the major characters, the Thenardiers have the least bearing on the central plot, but Cohen and Carter are so hysterical that their every appearance is appreciated.

The movie’s production design is exemplary, with the dingy costumes, makeup, and set design giving the musical a grounded quality it never had onstage.  The sweeping vistas on display are quite breathtaking, but unfortunately Hopper’s direction is much more enamored with various awkward close-ups.  It’s difficult to tell if the problem stems from the precise angle of the camera or from the actors’ visible discomfort directly addressing it, but these shots pull your attention out of the movie and make many of the solos appear visually flat.  The few that do switch up the shooting style, such as “Stars” and “Master of the House,” are notably stronger for it.

Overall, Les Miserables is a stunning achievement that should delight fans of the stage version and nonbelievers alike.  Top-tier production values and truly compelling performances help disguise the source material’s occasional shortcomings, and the movie manages the difficult task of remaining faithful to the stage version while simultaneously succeeding on its own merits.  Any theatre aficionado owes it to themselves to see this movie, and rediscover the joys of one of the seminal musicals of the past thirty years.

5 Reasons Why I'm NOT Excited About the "Les Miserables" Film (The Picture Should Give You a Major Hint)

This woman will soon be stinking up a multiplex near you

You may have heard that after years of rumors, they are finally making a film version of 80s megamusical Les Miserables.  This show will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was my first Broadway show, and I had fallen in love with (re: memorized) the entire score long before I actually saw it onstage.  While it can come across as too earnest for its own good, I think Les Miz is an inspiring story of redemption and people struggling to rise above the unfortunate circumstances life has dealt them. 

 

 

All that being said, I am not the least bit excited for the film version of Les Miserables.  And here’s why:

 

 

1)  Tom Hooper is directing.  The Oscar winner gained a lot of fans with last year’s Best Picture winner, The King’s Speech.  I was not among them.  While I think Speech is a perfectly respectable film, I also think it is perfectly ordinary.  There is nothing particularly daring or interesting about the way it is made; it is just a well acted, well shot period drama, the type of film that has been winning Oscars for decades.  Given how familiar Les Miz the musical already is, I think that adding Hooper’s very familiar directorial style into the mix will result in a decidedly bland and uninvolving film that lacks the key element to all great musicals: a sense of life.

 

 

2)  Hugh Jackman is not my ideal Jean Valjean.  I will say that, since they almost had to go with a major movie star (that’s the only way these film adaptations can secure the budget they really need to be done right), they could have done much worse than Jackman.  We know he can sing, and his brooding Wolverine persona could work for Valjean.  However, he strikes me as too young to play someone who starts the musical around age 40 (he’s been in jail for 19 years, after all), and ages another 20 over the course of the story.  I also question whether his voice is up to the demands of such a challenging role, especially given Hooper’s ludicrous decision to have all the actors sing live on set.  I’d love to see how they’re going to get a usable audio track onset, and how Jackman’s voice will hold up for the 20^th take of “Bring Him Home.”

 

 

3)  Anne Hathaway is playing Fantine.  Again, we know she can sing, and we know she can act (she is sensational in her Oscar-nominated turn in Rachel Getting Married).  She is also very young and glamorous, traits that don’t really suit Fantine.  Yes, Fantine probably isn’t that old physically, but she is definitely an old soul emotionally.  And she kind of gets sick and dies for no apparent reason early on (I assume she contracts syphilis during the “Lovely Ladies” montage), which means she’s gonna need to look like hell for her final number.  Will the makeup artists be able to tone down Hathaway’s natural beauty, especially in a big Hollywood film where the stars rarely have a strand of hair out of place?

 

 

4)  Taylor fucking Swift has been cast as Eponine.  This was really the straw that broke the camel’s back for a lot of people, myself included.  The country songstress has somehow managed to become a global music superstar despite the lack of any apparent vocal talent.  I assume her songwriting abilities are what have gotten her this far, but technique-wise she just isn't up to snuff.  If I wanted to hear a young 20-something woman butcher “On My Own,” the epitome of 80s Broadway belting, I would simply look the song up on YouTube and let the hilarity ensue, comfortable in the knowledge that those girls weren’t being paid large sums of money to do it.  Plus, we have no idea if Swift can actually act, although I suspect she is more Brittany Spears than Cher.

 

 

5)  Like all great musicals, Les Miz is inherently theatrical.  All of the best movie musicals have been altered significantly during the transition from stage to screen, letting them take advantage of cinema's inherent strengths (which can be quite different from theatre's strengths).  Even West Side Story, which on the surface is a very faithful adaptation of its stage counterpart, actually reshuffles several major numbers in an order to work on film.  And even then, that famed “Quintet” doesn’t really work onscreen, where it’s much more difficult to do simultaneous action, which does not bode well for “One Day More.”  In a best case scenario (which I’m not sure we’ll get), the Les Miz movie will end up like the Sweeney Todd adaptation:  perfectly respectable in its own right, but unable to replicate the magic of the stage version.