What a fantastic film! Tom Hooper's direction allows for so much subtlety and emotion that the stage show, as fantastic as it is, never can achieve. On stage the cast have to be big and bold throughout filling the large theatre space. Tom Hooper's frequent use of close-ups and steadicam work enabled the cast to show so much more detail in their portrayal of the various characters in Victor Hugo's novel. This is a version of Les Miserables unlike any other and works superbly.
Hugh Jackman was superb as the ex-convict Jean Valjean and portrays the various stages of Valjean's life with great believability. I had reservations about the casting of Anne Hathaway as Fantine but it did not take long for me to be won over. I'm not ashamed to say that I was welling up with her rendition of "Come to Me". All credit must be given to Daniel Huttlestone and Isabelle Allen as the young talent in the film playing Gavroche and the Cosette respectively. It was a nice touch to cast Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop as it was he who played the lead role of Valjean in the original stage version over 25 years ago.
The film was well made and the alternative style of recording the cast singing was hugely beneficial to the overall performance. However, it has to be said that Russell Crowe was woefully miscast. It's true that the guy can sing – but he cannot act and sing simultaneously. Every other member of the cast without exception put so much emotion and power behind their individual singing performances but Mr Crowe just sang each song in a completely uninteresting way. His greatest offence of this nature was in the Javert solo "Stars" which, when performed correctly, can be wonderfully emotive and actually generate some audience-felt compassion for the character. Russell destroyed the role and completely failed to match the quality of Jackman. The actors playing Valjean and Javert should be equally matched in performance power so that you feel it is a constant battle between them and could go either way. Hugh Jackman is far superior to Russell Crowe and the energy between them is completely lost.
Eddie Redmayne did his best to lift the wet-drip character of Marius to another level and mostly succeeds in doing so. Personally, I found his singing voice much "thicker-sounding" than all of the other cast and at times it seemed out of place, but he gave a sterling performance all the same.
Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen provide the comic relief and do so successfully – although it did feel at times that their scenes were plucked straight out of Sweeney Todd. Does Helena wear the same wig for every film she's in? Samantha Barks is utterly convincing as the tragic Eponine. If you didn't know this was her first film, you'd think she'd been performing in front of a camera all her life. "A Little Fall of Rain" has always been a favourite song of this reviewer and I enjoyed it more so than "On My Own" which is the usual crowd pleaser.
If you are unfamiliar with the stage version or indeed the book upon which it is based, this film rattles along very quickly in parts and it can be a little tricky to keep up with the story – particularly in the first half hour or so.
If you can tolerate Russell Crowe's dreadful performance, this film is still well worth seeing – it's certainly deserving of one or two or ten awards.
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