So I watched Les Mis. And I may or may not have cried. Of course, it was fabulous. If you have no experience with Les Mis…you should probably Wikipedia before you watch it in theaters. There are plot bunnies flying EVERYWHERE.
Breaking off from that tangent, I was surprised that everybody did so well. Especially Anne Hathaway (Fantine). Her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” was echoed by the sound of an Oscar.
The bromance between Enjolras and Grantaire…so perfect. If you’ve read Les Miserables, you would know that Victor Hugo ships them together, so this is not a mistake. The barricade boys were fantastic. They sounded more like a chorus of angels than revolutionaries.
Russell Crowe made Javert a little more rock star than necessary, but his spine cracking made up for it. Really. His suicide was the most morbid, perfect thing.
Eddie Redmayne (Marius) put so much passion into his voice, though his jaw is constantly spasm-ing in an attempt to increase vibrato by 8000 percent.
Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) wasn’t anything particularly special. She hit the notes, but I find her voice too light and floaty, especially since I’m used to Judy Kuhn’s slightly operatic take. But, she can be forgiven. She’s more actress than singer anyways.
Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean) is a great singer, and I love his acting; but he literally performed “Bring Him Home” WRONG. How do I know this? Because our school actually performed the musical version this December. And our Valjean won’t stop complaining about Jackman’s lack of “Bring Him Home” falsetto. Go figure.
(The red circle is me. Yay censorship!)
Samantha Barks (Eponine) was okay, I guess. Personally, I thought our Eponine had a more convincing “On My Own” than the movie Eponine… but Barks nailed “Attack on Rue Plumet”.
The Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) were absolutely perfect. “Master of the House” was the rowdiest, most hilarious thing I have ever seen. A lot of people seem to think the Thenardiers are supposed to be the “loveable villains”. While they’re comedic relief, they’re the epitome of evil, and I think Cohen and Carter portrayed both funny and evil really well.
Aside from characters, the costumes and makeups were stunning, and fit seamlessly with the history of Les Mis. There were just so many perfect little touches. If you haven’t watched the movie yet, pay attention to Fantine’s mouth as she sings “I Dreamed a Dream”; you can see her bloody gums. You will be astonished at how much care went into this movie.
A few other problems I had with the movie:
1. They switched around a lot of lyrics so that they no longer rhyme. Why would they do that?!
2. They switched and cut some songs. They cut Grantaire’s solo on the barricade…how could they?!
3. They have the most awkward camera angles sometimes. In “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”, all I could see was Eddie Redmayne’s shaking jaw. Lol wut.
4. Marius’ uncle randomly appears when Cosette and Marius are proclaiming their love for each other. There is no context for his appearance whatsoever. It’s just stupid. No.
5. Sometimes the singing was a little weak. I mean, overall, it was phenomenal. However, recording it live means a lot more mistakes waiting to happen. While emotional quality goes up, singing quality goes down…
At the end of the day it was a great movie! (Do you see what I did there!? AT THE END OF THE DAY!)
Pun-tastic.
