My Oh My, the storytelling is so bad that during "Stars" Javert is walking along the edge of a wall. We actually see a shot of his feet walking right next to the edge. The Javert songs were so poorly filmed. But then again so was Eponine's "Little Fall of Rain".
It didn't seem as vexing an issue when I saw the play, all the way back in 1987. The storytelling onstage didn't feel as incomplete as it did in the film, with its jump-cut of Valjean suddenly atop a mountain in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason.
THIS! There was a definite lack of fluidity in parts of the movie. For a two and a half hour long film, long chunks of it played like a SparkNotes version of the story. I cried, but I think I cried simply due to the power of the music, my personal feelings for the piece, the strength of the performances, and some of the well-filmed sequences (ie: the finale), not really because I felt for the characters.
And I couldn't agree more about Crowe. He seemed WAY too concerned with singing the part well (which he didn't really do) instead of acting. His Javert was in desperate need of a bit of fire under his ass and a bite that matched his bark. I still thought he was good, but not nearly as good as he could and should have been. I can deal with the mediocre singing, but his acting should have been a hell of a lot better.
And for the record, I thought the Thenardier stuff didn't really work at all. Like...none of it. The humor was staged way too theatrically and wasn't funny whatsoever and "Master of the House" was ... pretty bad. It was hammy, forced, and felt extremely disjointed from the rest of the film. This Thenardier lived in a world where he says "whatever" when his wife corrects him for calling Cosette by the wrong name. Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter were both trying way too hard, hamming it up in a way that didn't work at all for me. The pick-pocketing stuff came across as much more fluid, funny, and clever onstage. Here it just looks dumb. The awkward silences, where Hooper may as well have had someone walking around the movie theater holding up a blinking "LAUGH" sign, spread like wildfire throughout the packed theater I saw the film in. No one was laughing. I was almost cringing, come to think of it.
Did the sets for the barricade section look rather familiar to anyone? All those little shops and windows and alleyways. Nice to see that the Harry Potter sets are still seeing use. I kept expecting John Hurt to pop up and offer Aaron Tveit a dragon-heartstring wand.
I think the plot holes in the stage show are easier to ignore onstage where you already have to suspend your disbelief. In a movie that's trying to be realistic, it's more difficult.
So I saw the movie twice this weekend, wanted to wait a couple days to get my thoughts in order before I posted. Here goes: -Anne Hathaway as Fantine was truly phenomenal. "I Dreamed a Dream" was so wrenching and I appreciated the rough quality, as well as the new placement. This was one time I thought the close-up style really added to the emotional impact. I hope she does win the Oscar. -Hugh Jackman was alright. I thought he acted well, and did the recitatives fine. But "Bring Him Home" sounded a bit forced and lacked the prayer-like quality. Perhaps it was his lack of falsetto. Still, respectable. -I was pleasantly surprised by Eddie Redmayne. I found his Marius to be complicated, daring (when he threatened to blow up the barricade), and "Empty Chairs" broke my heart. I liked him more than most stage Mariuses. -The standout vocals were of course Samantha Barks and Aaron Tveit. Glorious every time either one opened their mouth. Both also were excellent acting. -enjoyed the "who's who" of West End actors. Especially Hadley Fraser as the French army captain- he seemed less villainous than we think of the big bad army. -I really like that they added in some of the bits from the book cut onstage; namely, the deaths of Enjolras and Grantaire, as well as Eponine. Eponine dying to save Marius was more moving than her death delivering the letter, and made her less of a girl with a crush and more of a brave woman willing to die if it would save someone she loved (a bit like Fantine). And I was glad to see Grantaire choose to die with Enjolras, especially since they cut his character moment in "Drink with Me". And it was so sad to see Enjolras, the charismatic and courageous firebrand, reach for human contact at the last moment of his life: one hand on the flag, one gripping Grantaire's wrist. Just reinforced the theme of love and loyalty. -Russell Crowe: intimidating speaking, almost laughable singing. But the moment with the medal in Gavroche killed me. Also, the Thenadiers were a bit disappointing. Just didn't quite click for some reason. -Not a fan of "Suddenly". It stuck out too much, and just wasn't that great of a song. -I sobbed at the finale. Both times. And so did most of the sold out theater. Something about that moment just is a gut punch to me: it's so sad but at the same time incredibly hopeful. -Overall, I really was moved and enjoyed the movie both times. A few shooting choices annoyed me, but not too much to take away my genuine enjoyment.
Just a thought---Why are people going to see Les Miz? Is is because of who is in it--or the show itself?Certainly Hugh/Russell are well known and to a lesser extent,Anne,but I don't feel the crowds are flocking to see them.Not that we will ever know,and everyone has their perfect Fantine etc,but if this same movie had been cast with people who were perfect for the parts and not well known,how would this movie have fared at the box office?
On balance, I liked it. There are some wonderful moments and some very awkward ones. Hathaway does not disappoint. The kids and Barks are wonderful. Most of the performances are actually far better than I expected (although I didn't like Cohen and Bonham Carter). Many of the clips I saw (and hated) worked much better in context and on a large screen. However, there is so much bad editing. All too often, Hooper is incapable of bringing to life scenes involving more than one or two characters (with some notable exceptions, I particularly liked what he did with Red and Black, for instance).
"My Oh My, the storytelling is so bad that during "Stars" Javert is walking along the edge of a wall. We actually see a shot of his feet walking right next to the edge. The Javert songs were so poorly filmed. But then again so was Eponine's "Little Fall of Rain"."
Chooka, for me personally, I went to see it because I've seen the stage version several times. I would have seen it even if it was completely unknown. Everyone that I know personally who has seen it is the same. They are seeing it because it's Les Miz.
Finally got back from seeing it. As pretty much everyone else has said, Anne Hathaway is pretty magnificent and gives a beautiful performance. The last shot of her on the barricade killed me. I also really enjoyed Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried- no, her voice isn't spectacular, but I thought she was lovely. And god help me, I enjoyed Russell Crowe. No, he's not terrific in the part, but he acted it well enough for me. Tveit and Barks sang well, but their parts barely registered on screen. In particular, Eponine seemed really superfluous.
I wasn't crazy about Jackman. Yes, he can sing, and acquits himself quite well in that department (with the jarring exception of Bring Him Home- I've never hated that number more than I did hearing him blast his way through it, but he was just boring for me. And hated the Thenardiers. None of the humor landed, and Master of the House was completely unfunny. Also, why exactly did we need to hear their song at the end? At that point, I want the story to end, so why do we have to hear a word from them?
I really hated the direction. The constant close-ups, with the exception of one or two numbers, really grated on my nerves. And the whole thing felt kind of choppy- the film just jumped from number to number and I really felt the length of the piece. It's a shame, because there were certain moments, like the new placement of Do You Hear the People Sing, that I liked quite a lot, but weren't as stirring as they should have been because of the pacing of the film.
Still, it's not a total failure- there's some great work among the actors, and I sobbed at the ending, which I've never done seeing the show onstage. It's a mixed bag, with a lot of great things, but I felt disappointed- it could have been a lot more.
Yes. And I thought it was an interesting character moment, demonstrating that Javert was so sure of himself that not even a ledge frightened him. To say that Javert is "sure of his own steps" does make it sound heavy-handed, but I didn't form that phrase until now.
And, honestly, Kad, if I hadn't read it here, I would not have known that was supposed to be Javert's spine cracking when he fell. I would have accepted it as a sound effect to enhance the moment without interpreting it literally.
Whatever that sound was, it could not have been more over the top. Some people in my theater actually giggled. As I said, I felt as though the theatrics of the film were wasted on moments, scenes, and songs that didn't need it at all. Save that over-the-top-ness for the musical numbers that are supposed to be rousing and almost overwhelming. Instead, we get a lot of unnecessarily melodramatic and bombastic moments that come dangerously close to being laughably heavy-handed.
Some critics are praising Hooper for "embracing the theatrics" of the piece, but I felt like he wasted the theatricality on moments that don't need to be wildly theatrical. I just really get the feeling that he was either completely lost while putting this movie together, or he just made some very wrong decisions. Either way, for what it's worth, I don't think he knows how to handle a movie musical. He's a talented director, but this is far from his finest hour. If the cast wasn't as good as they (are on the whole), imagine how the film would be? Yuck.
Side note: The Hollywood Reporter has LES MIZ on their short list for the Oscar's Best Editing nominations. If this film gets nominated for Best Editing, the nominating committee should all have their eyes checked, pronto. I honestly don't really notice bad editing in movies, but the editing in LES MIZ is unforgivably bad at times.
Saw it again tonight, and I enjoyed it SOOO much more than I did the first time around. Crowe and Jackman were still pretty bad, but I got a lot more out of Carter and Cohen's Thenardiers this time around for some reason. I still wish the orchestrations were louder though.
One other thing. for all its schmaltz appeal, Javert's giving the dead Gavroche the medal made zero sense, as did Baron Cohen's burlesque French accent that came and went. Hooper is best at directing solos, and the gutwrenching closeups during them which bother many worked very well for me.
In re: the closeups. It wasn't so much the fact of the closeups, for me. It was the lack of anything in particular being revealed by way too many of those closeups. I didn't mind it during the extended single take of Ms. Hathaway's splendid I Dreamed A Dream and Ms. Barks' On My Own. Now during Bring Him Home, on the other hand, all I saw was an actor who seemed really at sea about what exactly he was supposed to be doing and where he was supposed to be looking because there's this digital cameraman about two feet away and should he look into the camera or not and there's a big high note coming and he hopes he hits it because he doesn't know if his voice would get him through any more takes today...
I don't know if anyone has mentioned (or experienced) this, but in the theatre where I saw it, there were some giggles when Valjean reads Marius's letter to Cossette. And later, when Valjean is seeing Marius at the barricade and looking at him affectionately.
I was trying to figure out why people were laughing and, I wondered if they thought that Valjean thought that Marius's love letter was written to him (Valjean), and Valjean's later interest in Marius was, well, for his own benefit.
I went to see it because, well, it's Les Miz. I think the whole thing was terribly miscast, with the exception of Miss Hathaway. I still enjoyed it immensly and cried throughout. But, that's because, it's Les Miz.
Well, canmark, that just shows some people are idiots. I had no such laughter when I saw the show. In fact, I didn't experience a single moment of unjustified reaction.
I didn't see Jackman's affection for either Allen or Redmayne as the least bit erotic or misplaced. Or susceptible of that But I did get an erotic tension in Tveit's frequent expressive regard of Redmayne with just a hint of jealousy. If that was a choice to play it that way it wasn't a bad one at all. Or perhaps I mistake.
I think part of the giggling may have come from the fact that Marius has written this profoundly emotional letter to Cosette when he's spent about 3 minutes in her company.
Interesting how many seem to either love or hate this movie. I liked it, recognize its many fine moments, a couple of brilliant ones as well as many disastrously bad ones. I have to agree, however, that an editing oscar nod would be ridiculous.
The theater all made audible noises of "Eghh" or cringing when they heard the noise after Javert fell.
"Javert's giving the dead Gavroche the medal made zero sense"
THANK YOU. This is Javert for heaven's sake. He wasn't moved by Fantine's hooker with dying daughter and a heart of gold, he is not going to pin one of his (probably precious) medals to someone he sees as a traitor. When Javert commits suicide, his viewpoint of the world has not changed, his viewpoint of Valjean has and that's what's incompatible with his worldview. That's why he can't reconcile the two and that's why he commits suicide.
I thought that "Bring Him Home" was terrible but for me the song has never made much sense, anyway. I get the gist of it but the "He's like the son I would have known" line grates on me. Valjean has literally never met this kid at this point in the musical. Their relationship in the novel is far more contentious, too.
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Posted: 12/30/12 at 08:00pm