Over the last 30-odd years, I have somehow managed to remain innocent of all things Les Misérables. From its germination in Paris through its conquest of London’s West End, its 16 years on Broadway (plus another two in revival), its profusion of international productions (in some 20 languages), and its various vinyl and CD incarnations, I had until now seen not a moment and heard not a note (well, not very many notes) of this globe-throttling musical. So perhaps I can offer a fresh, nonpartisan assessment of Tom Hooper’s new film version.
First
of all, it’s huge, not least in terms of its runtime. In a season of sprawling
Oscar-nudgers, Les Miz, at two
hours and 37 minutes, is longer than Lincoln, just as
long as Zero Dark Thirty,
and nearly as long as Django Unchained and the current champion butt-tester, The
Hobbit. The cast is suitably large, and ranges in musical expertise
from such seasoned belters as Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway to such unexpected
vocalists as Eddie Redmayne (surprisingly terrific) and Russell Crowe. Yes, Russell
Crowe. I know he has long fronted his own Aussie rock group, but
that hasn’t quite prepared him for this.
Any movie that begins with Crowe stepping forth in song is a movie
that summons dark fears. But while he does seem a little puzzled about why he’s
here, he’s not bad, and he is a fine actor, of course, and he gets
better as the story—distilled from Victor Hugo’s doorstopping novel—moves
along. He plays Javert, the implacable police inspector who, over the course of
17 years, doggedly pursues the unfortunate Jean Valjean (Jackman), a man who
was long imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread and then violated parole to
escape into a new identity as a prosperous factory owner and provincial
mayor.
Along the trail of Valjean’s endless persecution by Javert, we encounter
an abundance of other characters. There’s the wretched Fantine (Hathaway), a
former drudge in Valjean’s factory who is reduced to dismal prostitution in
order to provide for her illegitimate daughter, Cosette (played in full flower
by Amanda Seyfried, herself no slacker in the vocal department). Then there are
the low-comic Thénardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter),
hissable innkeepers into whose clutches Cosette falls, and the idealistic
student Marius (Redmayne), whose longtime love for Cosette is a source of
despair for the Thénardiers’ daughter Éponine (stage vet Samantha Barks), who
yearns for Marius herself.
From the early prison scenes
to the armed civic rebellion in the streets of Paris, virtually every line of
dialogue here is sung. This is not a format of which I’m normally fond; but the
songs (by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil, and Jean-Marc Natel, English
lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer), while not uniformly hummable, are carefully
crafted, and have a general harmonic enterprise that held my interest. Hooper’s
elaborate interiors and charmingly artificial municipal vistas provide a lot to
look at, and he has given the film a striking theatrical immediacy by having
the performers actually sing on-camera, rather than lip-synch to pre-recorded
tracks. The movie is basically a procession of showpiece scenes, and as I
watched Valjean being frustrated by cruel circumstance in his attempts to do
the right thing, and the other characters slogging their way through various
sorrowful situations, I have to admit that I was sometimes moved to the verge
of contemplating the possibility of tears.
In addition, Jackman gives
what I think would have to be called an epic performance as the stalwart hero,
maintaining a heartbroken dignity through all of Hooper’s endless close-ups.
And Hathaway, in raggedy clothes and pitifully chopped hair, sailing into “I
Dreamed a Dream” like a castaway on the high seas of misery, seems sure to
secure the Oscar nomination for which she, like Jackman, is already being
touted.
I was surprised by how enjoyable this picture’s earnest stew of
musical and emotional overkill turned out to be. No matter how resistant you
normally are to this sort of overflowing cinematic exercise, you will
certainly love it too. And like me, that will come as a definite surprise to
you.
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