My thoughts on the Les Miserables movie (Spoilers! Beware!)

I love Les Miserables.   Love, love, LOVE IT.  It has been my favorite musical since I was 16 years old.  I love the characters, I love the story, I love the music and the lyrics.   Long story short, this movie really couldn’t go wrong with me.

That doesn’t stop me from being critical.   Nothing does.   So here are some of the thoughts I had while watching the movie on Christmas Day – in no particular order.

(Look down.  Look down.  There’s spoilers there below.)

The idea of having the actors sing on set is really cool – in theory.   It allowed for some really great emotional performances.   In the end, I don’t think it ended up blending well with the orchestra, and I think it caused the actors to hold back a little vocally.   Nobody was as powerful as they could have been.  Nobody really let rip.   Except maybe Samantha Barks (Eponine), once.

Unfortunately, really great emotional performances were accompanied by snotty, drooly close-up shots.   My husband called it “follicle-cam,” though, to be honest, I was too distracted by everybody’s dental work to notice their follicles.

Some of the songs were performed out of order from the musical.  I actually liked the way that worked out.   “I Dreamed a Dream” was so powerful, and it will be just plain wrong if Anne Hathaway doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for her performance as Fantine.  Seriously, wow.   And I’m not particularly a fan of Hathaway.

Hugh Jackman deserves an Oscar nomination just for being able to sing the entire opening sequence around those nasty, 19-years-without-a-toothbrush false teeth.

Colm Wilkinson (who originated the role of Jean Valjean in London and on Broadway) as the Bishop of Digne was just beautiful.  That man’s voice can tear me up in any incarnation.   It was fitting that he be part of this movie.

The plot was altered a bit from the musical, which made it more true to Hugo’s novel.  The downside to this was that Eponine’s role was slightly smaller than it is in the musical.   Gavroche’s  was slightly larger.   The student insurgents were a little bland.  I can remember being so affected by the passion in the voice of David Burt as Enjolras on the Original London Cast Recording.   Not so, here.   Admittedly, I left for  a bathroom break (thanks to a 32 oz Cherry Coke)  just as the opening bars of “Do You Hear the People Sing” began.   My husband assures me that scene was very cool.

Any duet or ensemble scene with Russell Crowe (Javert) had me singing in my head,  Sesame Street style,   “One of these actors is out of his comfort zone.  Come on, can you tell which one?”

Russell Crowe is in a band?  People pay money to hear him sing?   Hugh Jackman (a stage veteran, to be fair) sang and acted circles around Crowe, though Valjean’s songs were a bit rangy for even Jackman’s vocal talent (Hugh, I love you, but "Bring Him Home" should have been dubbed.)

The Thenardiers couldn’t have been better cast.   Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were perfect (and again, I’m not especially fond of either).

The kids were fantastic.   They could do a whole movie about Gavroche and I’d watch it.

Mercifully, the song “Turning” was trimmed to just the first poignant verse, though given recent events, the lyrics, “Did you see them lying where they died?  Someone used to cradle them and kiss them when they cried.  Did you see them, lying side by side?” really hit me.

Javert pinning his medal on Gavroche’s dead body was totally unnecessary and, more than that,  out of character.  I imagine they were trying to show how Valjean’s mercy was starting to get to the unyielding lawman, but as a nearly lifelong fan of Javert, I truly don’t believe he could have forgiven an insurgent, even a child.

While I was a little disappointed in the absence of Eponine’s ghost and harmonies from the finale, the way Valjean’s death was portrayed was heartbreakingly beautiful.  Unless you're made of stone, bring Kleenex.

Musical performances aside, I loved the way the movie made me feel.   It was gritty, without being graphic.   I was truly seeing “les miserables” of 19^th century France – dirty, crowded streets; disgusting sewers; starving poor with sunken eyes and sore-ridden skin.   I loved the unfortunately realistic glimpse of human nature, too, as the people of France rallied behind the insurgents, only to leave them hanging out to dry when the moment of truth came.  People love to vocalize about a cause.   It’s taking action that’s the hard part, and too many people would just rather stay inside and close their windows when it gets too hard.

Have you seen the movie?   Tell me what YOU think!