Les Miserables - Film

I've said it before and I'll say it again - nothing that comes out of Russell Crowe's mouth in that film is anywhere near as offensive as what Hugh Jackman does to the end of Bring Him Home.

Watching it now.

I actually really like the film. I saw it the day it opened in Cimema's and the entire audience gave a standing ovation at the end. It was amazing to see on the big screen.

Whilst Crowe is not the strongest singer, I actually think it kind of worked for that role. Jackman was amazing too with the physical aspects of the role, a great voice (though the end of Bring Him Home is awful). The highlights for me were obviously Anne Hathaway who was stellar and totally deserved the Oscar for that performance. But I actually think Samantha Barks was the strongest of the four ladies (Hathaway, Barks, Bonham Carter and Seyfried). She was massively underrated and, actually I think deserved an Oscar nomination right up there alongside Anne. But visually the film is stunning and you get the sense of the epic nature clearly.

I also think the Broadway Revival really missed an opportunity by not adding Suddenly and not swapping I Dreamed a Dream and Lovely Ladies. That song makes so much more sense after Lovely Ladies. She gets thrown out of the factory because she has a child she told no one about and that is all we know of her. Whereas after the hair, necklace, teeth and sex, you really feel emotionally connected to her a lot more. I dunno, I just think that song placement has always been stupid.

I agree about Samantha Barks

They've also swapped the positioning of both Stars and On My Own.

Amanda S is trilling like a budgie.

Seriously Daniel? Why? She does nothing in the film apart from that one song which is competent but nothing more. Why do you think she was so good?  

Ye Olde Greenwiche Français!!!

I find this whole film offensive. The literal approach is disrespectful to the art. This material is per definition not literal.

It is a 1 take theatre performance on a pavement with no filmic editing whatsoever, and I see a bunch of poor actors literally struggling with notes. Therefore only the crying scenes work.

This inadequacy makes the singing feel extremely unnatural and out of place. And that makes the acting feel extremely unnatural, as you wonder why the hell they are speaking 3 words and give the last word a 12 second failed musical parody vibrato.

Every stage Valjean gave a much more filmic performance. For example "Now come on ladies, settle down". Every stage Valjean kept the last word short. Jackman speaks the first words and then a 12 second "doooooooooooooooooown" with a grating vibrato. This lack of understanding and lack of combining the singing and acting (instead  of constantly switching) made people in the audience laugh.


The singing gets in the way of the acting for them. As they didn't know how to use it. Only when crying.

Combine that with a director who doesn't understand this way of storytelling at all (wrong timings, for example when the guards still walk in the room when the bishop sings "but remember this, my brother", is a guaranteed mess. The main mistake was the thought that "toning everything down" would make it raw and real. It made it silly and stupid. And funny.

The live-bleating was also a part of this problem. Too literal for film.

Generally I liked it but the moment Valjean stepped out of the sewer covered in sh@t and then started singing made me giggle.

Anne Hathaway though was incredible. Crowe was good on the acting side but rubbish at the songs.

Good to see Colm at the final scene, nicely done. And Cameron Mack and co cameo was fun.

I loved it at the cinema in Imax, less so at home. Crowe was a disaster, I also didn't rate Jackman, he took the emotion out of 'Bring Him Home', a task I thought was pretty impossible! Also the last hour looked like a stage set.