SILVER SCREEN - Les Miserables: The review

“To love another person is to see the face of God”

That was the last powerful line from the epic movie musical of the century, Les Miserables which was shown here in the Philippines last January 16, 2012. If you have been following my blog, you’d know that I’ve been waiting for this movie for the longest time. I’ve been posting trailers, featurettes and other updates from the movie. So last night, January 18, I watched it with my family and this is what I thought about it.

Les Miserables

Directed by: Tom Hooper

Produced by: Cameron Mackintosh

Cast:

Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean

Russell Crowe as Javert

Anne Hathaway as Fantine

Amanda Seyfried as Cosette

Eddie Redmayne as Marius

Samantha Barks as Eponine

Sacha Baron Cohen as Monsieur Thenardier

Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier

Les Miserables, or The Miserable Ones, is a story of love, compassion, friendship and kindness  that took place in the midst of chaos, suffering and poverty. Set in the 1800 French Revolution, Les Miserables is one of the most beautiful and epic musicals of all time. Now, Universal Studios and Working Title Productions brought this masterpiece in the silver screen.  Les Miserables is the most epic movie musical of this century.

What I love about the movie are the beautiful songs and numbers of the movie. Anyone who knows me knows how I love music and singing, So Les Miserables is kind of the pinnacle of it all. Although there are some parts where songs were shortened, it didn’t affect the flow of the story.

What I also love is the fact that they were singing live while the movie was filmed [Les Miserables to sing live on movie] . It shows the real emotion when they sang it as opposed to recording the song then singing it in lip sync. It made the 

movie more sincere, more realistic, as if you’re really watching a live show.

Also, I would like to point out how great the actors were in the movie. I’ll start with Hugh Jackman since he was the star in this movie. Jackman’s performance was amazing. I’ve known him all along as Wolverine and he was great as an Xmen. I’ve also known him as a great theater actor since I saw him perform as Peter Allen in The Boy from OZ for which he won a Tony award so it would be kind of disappointing if he did not 

do well. And he did not disappoint!! He was so good!

I would also like to commend Anne Hathaway as Fantine. We all know how great of an actress she is but she showed a different kind of dedication in this movie. Her performance was so real and sincere. I was crying during her death scene (Actually I was crying most of the time).

Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen were hilarious as the Thenardiers.  I’ve been a fan of the two and I already know that they will do great in the movie and they did! Amanda Seyfried was also great as Cosette. She was beautiful, dainty and sweet as Cosette should be. I know she could sing but I did not know that she could sing that beautifully as she did in the movie. Samantha Barks, who plays Eponine on Broadway and on West End also, did good as she did on the 25^th Anniversary Concert of Les Mis.

Russell Crowe plays Inspector Javert in the movie. A lot of reviews say Crowe was not good as the rest. His singing was not as powerful as Javert should be but I think he did pretty well. Russell Crowe is a great actor, and he did pretty well as Javert. He certainly looked the part too. He looked good in his uniform, he was strong, and he looked authoritative and serious. However, his singing was not the best as compared to his co-actors. I believe he sings in a band. But not all singers can sing classical or theatrically so I think it would be unfair if Russell Crowe would be judged as a theater singer since he is not. But he did pretty well.

One of the cast who I was most proud of was Eddie Redmayne who played Marius, the love struck young student leader who was saved by Jena Valjean and the lone survivor of the barricade. I’ve known him as Jack in Pillars of the Earth and he did well there.  I also know that he won a Tony award as best supporting actor [Celebrity Spotlight:Eddie Redmayne] but last night, when he was singing “Empty chairs and Empty Tables”, I could not help but cry because he was really good. His performance was so sincere, so heartfelt, and so full of emotions.  I was really proud of him! Redmayne is not that popular in Hollywood but I know that his performance in this movie will catapult him into stardom.

A little trivia on the movie, the actor who played Monsignor in the movie, Colm Wilkinson, is the original Jean Valjean in Broadway.

If you haven’t watched the movie, you are missing out a lot. This was the best movie musical of the century, not only because of the hype, the actors but because it was really good! It really deserved the Golden Globe 

that it received.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions post them below or on twitter @iamthebluedevil