Based on the musical version of “Les Misérables,” which is in turn based on the five-volume classic novel by Victor Hugo published in 1862, this musical from director Tom Hooper is— quite undeniably—unbelievably hyped. You’ve seen the commercials; you’ve seen the gossip blogs talk about Anne Hathaway’s haircut; you’ve seen Hugh Jackman cry on “60 Minutes.” There’s no way you’ve missed the buildup for this film. And, to be honest, most of that acclaim is warranted. Hooper and screenwriter William Nicholson (who was nominated for the Best Screenplay Oscar in 2000 for “Gladiator”) have done a good job streamlining both the novel and the musical, cutting it down, choosing the right songs, and creating believable relationships between characters. (And there are so many characters).
But there is something about a musical, in film format, that feels simultaneously goofy and constrained. It’s hard not to chuckle when Jackman, for example, sings a song, says one or two lines of dialogue, and then launches full-speed into another song; the pacing becomes forced and hurried. And when Hooper chooses to film his actors, singing alone or delivering monologues, in extreme close-up, you can see how great the actors are—but you lose the wider effect of a play, where you see the entire stage the entire time and can soak it all in. So much of the cinematographic choices guide, quite exactly, what the filmmakers want the audience to be seeing and experiencing and thinking and feeling. To break out of that confinement is quite impossible, and as the film goes along, feels quite tedious.
The performances, however, are magnificent. The plot focuses on Jean Valjean (Jackman, of “Rise of the Guardians” and “X-Men: First Class”), a Frenchman who has spent 19 years in prison for stealing bread to feed his sister’s dying son and becomes known by his prisoner number, 24601. The year is 1815—26 years after the French Revolution—but again the people are poor and struggling, cut off entirely from the money-flushed upper class. So when Valjean is released from prison, Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe, of “Robin Hood”), his main nemesis, makes it impossible for him to get work. His parole papers mean no one will hire him. And starving, suffering, Valjean turns to stealing from a church; the mercy of the monsignor, however, gives Valjean the confidence to start a new life, to try and become a better, more pious and moral person.
Eight years later, Valjean has created a totally new persona. But though he’s now the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer and a wealthy factory owner, he catches the eye of Inspector Javert again and is forced to slide back into the shadows. Flustered with almost being recognized, he allows his factory foreman to fire beautiful single mother Fantine (Hathaway, of “The Dark Knight Rises,” “One Day,” “Rio,” “Love and Other Drugs,” and “Alice in Wonderland”) for resisting his advances. The dismissal cements Fantine’s ruin, making her daughter Cosette’s future questionable. What will happen to her beautiful blond daughter, nicknamed the “urchin” because of her poverty?
How Cosette grows up (adult Cosette is played by Amanda Seyfried, of “Gone,” “Red Riding Hood,” “Letters to Juliet,” “Dear John,” and “Jennifer’s Body”) plays a major role in the Valjean vs. Javert rivalry, which picks up again nine years later, during the 1832 uprising. And this time around, Javert has to deal with rebellious schoolboys, too, led by the bright, charismatic Marius (Eddie Redmayne, of “My Week with Marilyn”), who is loved by the poor Éponine (Samantha Barks) and constantly trailed by the little boy Gavroche (Daniel Huttlestone), a clever child of the streets. How everyone’s lives connect—Cosette and Marius, Cosette and Éponine, Éponine and Marius, and so forth—helps build the climax of “Les Misérables,” which takes place on the barricades, as the rebels face off against French’s military and monarchy. Get ready to cry.
What works best in “Les Misérables,” thankfully, are the performances and the songs, which the actors sung live during filming instead of recording separately and then lip-synching along to as the cameras rolled. That in-the-scene singing means emotions seem more genuine and pack a more visceral punch; standouts include Jackman’s rendition of “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” when Jackman decides to change his life; the whole cast’s “One Day More,” which checks in with all the characters before the climactic final battle; and, of course, Hathaway’s “I Dreamed a Dream” and Barks’s “On My Own,” the most tragic songs of the musical. Hathaway’s face, which changes from sad to angry to resigned during those four minutes, is unforgettable; Barks is similarly affecting, musing over her broken heart in “On My Own” and accepting her fate in “A Little Fall of Rain.”
Barks has played Éponine before onstage and she’s wonderful here, the right mix of lost and sarcastic and sad. Of the less-famous actors, Barks and Redmayne are the standouts; as Marius, he brings a quiet depth and integrity to the part. Seyfried, as Cosette, is fine, but the character is so bland in her innocence that it’s tough to do add much. More impactful is Crowe as Javert, a man struggling to understand the grey areas between the black and white of the law. His transformation, a sort of parallel to Valjean’s, is memorable in its own right.
All those performances, though, can’t fix what Hooper does wrong. There’s a weird disconnect, for example, between the somber, serious feel of the film overall and the few scenes with the thieving Thénardiers, played by Helena Bonham Carter (of “Dark Shadows,” “Toast,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” and “Part 2,” “The King’s Speech,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”) and Sacha Baron Cohen (of “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” “The Dictator,” “Hugo,” and “Bruno”). They’re goofy and ridiculous instead of manipulating and terrifying, which is a bit of jarring change. And those repetitive close-ups of singing actors prove nothing, really. We know the actors are singing. We know their faces reflect emotion. Was there no other, less monotonous, way to film?
Those technical mistakes are what keep “Les Misérables” from perfection, despite the actors’ strength, the songs’ catchiness, and the overall ambition of the project. It’s certainly worth watching, but that last half-hour—it will get on your nerves.
