Director: Tom HooperScreenwriter(s): Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil, Victor Hugo
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe & Anne Hathaway
Genre(s): drama/musical/romance
Premiere: December 25th, 2012
Run Time: 160 minutes
Producer(s): Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, & Cameron Mackintosh
Distributor: Universal Pictures
My Rating: ★★★★
Taglines: Fight. Dream. Hope. Love.
Movie Trailer:
Storyline: Prisoner 24601, known as Jean Valjean, is released from prison and breaks parole to create a new life for himself while evading the grip of the persistent Inspector Javert. Set post-revolutionary France, the story reaches resolution against the background of the June Rebellion.
My Review: There are few movies that get me so emotionally involved I cry more than once. I think the last movie that brought me to tears (whether they be of joy or happiness) was Don't Back Down and The Help before that one. This movie made me cry half a dozen times at least!
For those who know very little about the background of this movie: it is based off of the Broadway play NOT the book! However, the Broadway play is based off the book by Victor Hugo. The movie is like Evita in that it's continuous singing and music from beginning to end. There are a few moments where the characters are talking not in a "sing-song" fashion but those are so few and far between you'd hardly notice it.
A few words on the characters singing voices: they all were amazing. From the obvious stars of the show, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, to the minor players, they all were superb. And it must be noted that the director, Tom Hooper, in order to make the movie seem as authentic as possible, had the cast sing live while filming the movie instead of in a soundstage. Also, let it be noted that Anne Hathaway's mother played Fantine back in her "hay-day" so Anne did not want to play that role. She wanted to play Cossette but unfortunately is too old for the part. Personally, I think she's played her best role as Fantine. Her two important songs, I Dreamed a Dream and the Epilogue.
As a story goes, the telling of it was smooth and transitioned well. I did not feel like I was sitting in the theater for three hours. There are some heartbreaking moments, but if you know the translation of Les Miserables, loosely meaning the poor and forgotten souls, you have a certain understanding of the despair. Amongst the depression are some funny moments, but they are few and far between. It was ripe with key elements that make a movie great. Music, lyrics, characters, story-lines and believability. Do not go into this movie expecting a happy ending or a happy feeling. The young loves remain young and in love but that is a small token compared to what happens around them.
**SPOILER ALERT**
There is a young boy in the movie. It is hard not to look at him and see the children from Stony Hook Elementary School in his eyes. His character is deeply involved in the Resistance during the time of the French Revolution in the early 1800's. When you are first introduced to him you can't help but fall in love quickly. He sings of rising up against a corrupt society who speaks of helping the poor but never truly do. To me, he is the glue that keeps the boys of the Revolution together and helps them to remember what they are fighting for. You forget he is only a child. You forget, until the fighting gets serious. The army's are surrounding the young boys fighting for freedom and there is little hope of survival in everyone's eyes. Their only hope is to go to the bodies of the dead and retrieve what little gun powder they have. The young boy sees this as an opportunity to use his small size to go within the line of fire to retrieve what is needed to help. He feels, as I'm sure we all watching did, that the enemy would not stoop so low as to kill a child. How wrong we all were. The first shot gets him in the leg and our hearts collectively skip a beat. He continues on with his task braving the pain of having been shot by the enemy. Almost daring them to shoot him again. They do. This time it is fatal. This time, our hearts break. The sight of his lifeless body laying there after being shot dead was unexpected to me. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. And then afterwards, when Marius, half of the young lovers, is the only survivor of the massacre of all his friends, returns to where the fighting started and ended, he sings a song that again brought tears to everyone's eyes. They went like this:
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
**END OF SPOILER ALERT**
The common theme, evident throughout the movie, is God. He is everywhere and in everyone. There is much to be said for the power of forgiveness as well as the power of guilt and sense of duty. God is behind it all. And no one says it (or sings it) better than Fantine and Jean Valjean near the end of the movie:
And remember the truth that once was spoken
To love another person is to see the face of God
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