Les Miserables ☆☆☆½

To be totally honest, I wasn't in the best mood to watch this film. I forced myself into watching it because I had a time limit on how long I could keep the disc for, which meant I wasn't really in the mood for either a musical or romantic drama.

For those who don't know this is a dramatic musical set after the French Revolution, where a King is back and the people are just as miserable (geddit?!) as before. It focuses on 'criminal' Jean Valjean who breaks parole and becomes a successful and kindly man after being shown great kindness by a Priest he steals from. He is pursued by policeman Javert, who is determined he should not escape punishment, while he takes care of a young girl whose Mother, Fantine, died after being kicked out of her job in Valjean's factory and was forced to become a prostitute to keep up payments for her daughter.

This is a tale of unjust pursuit, poverty, unrequited love, death, tragedy, and love at first sight. It lives up to its name to say the least!

Now, I have seen the stage show (yes I know, need to change the name of the blog if I'm going to keep talking about the theatre), and that has affected how I have percieved this film because I was constantly making comparisons. No doubt that this is epic and beautifully made, and sometimes the intimacy that you can attain through a film goes beyond that of the theatre, but you do suspend your level of disbelief so much more when watching a stage. You go with the love at first sight story because aww its so sweet and isn't this whole thing quite downtrodden? Whereas sat watching the film I was a bit put off by the trills of Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne cooing at each other like love struck pigeons...ok that might be mean but I'm a little tired.

What the film absolutely outdoes the stage show on is being able to see clearly the agony on peoples faces, Anne Hathaway's Fantine was simply incredible, and was one of three moments that I welled up (I know right, I normally go to pieces at the slightest hint of tragedy but this time I was being too much of a critic).

Hathaway definitely deserved the supporting actress Oscar, though I think 10% was for having her hair unceremoniously hacked off. She has a lovely singing voice and it was strong enough to carry through her tears and anguish. Am not sure Amanda Seyfried's voice would have been strong enough for such a role, but she was playing the young and sweet Cosette who needed only to be young and sweet for her dear Papa and Marius.

Now, Eddie Redmayne, even though I disliked his lighter lovey-dovey moments with Seyfried, he has a powerful presence when he sings. There is a scene toward the end after one of the many tragedies occurs, and his emotion and strength was astonishing. I am a bit ashamed to admit that my attention wandered sometimes toward Twitter, but then the film would force me into paying attention - especially Redmayne's singing.

AS for Javert and Valjean...I have to say I found both of their voices annoying and pleasant. Hugh Jackman's Valjean was a bit too high for my liking, plus I think I put a lot of expectation on his voice being this magical and beautiful thing. Equally I had such low expectations of Russell Crowe's singing ability that I was pleasantly surprised. I mean it is not your typical voice for musicals, but it wasn't entirely awful.

The voices I had zero issues with include the little boy in the revolutionaries camp, the young Cosette, her awful caretakers played by the marvellous Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, and the lovely Samantha Barks playing Eponine.

Barks is a professional musical theatre performer, with Eponine her most recent role on stage, so it is unsurprising that she could carry off the emotion and sing at the same time. She was very impressive and I'd like to see her live on stage one day.

We have heard the impressive pipes of Bonham Carter and Baron Cohen previously in Sweeney Todd, and evidently they can do comic like no other actors whilst singing live and leaping all over the place.

Which of course is the truly remarkable thing about this movie, that 90% of the singing is in fact Live. They had earpieces in which piped music, then they sang on top, the same thing several times, wearing out their voices. Its a wonder they got to the big finale with any voice left.

However, impressive as the style in which it was filmed is, Les Mis is a film that only musical lovers should watch, and even then the singing takes its toll. There are maybe five spoken lines in the whole thing, otherwise its all singing. It got to me a little whilst watching it on stage, and it grated even more while watching the film. And I am a HUGE fan of musicals, but maybe its just this is too much because of the story and the style of singing. I think Tim Rice's 'Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat' also involves a lot of singing and hardly any dialogue, but it has a bit more of an up-tempo vibe (despite, you know, the brothers trying to kill Joseph).

I think I need to watch this film again, when I'm really in the mood for a weepy musical, at which time I'll probably wish I'd added another star on to this review. However for now, its very good and worth a watch, but only if you love romance, musicals, and some good old fashioned tragedy.