Movie review: Les Miserables | canada.com

Les Miserables

Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried. Directed by Tom Hooper.

Rating: Parental Guidance

Advisory: violence, sexually suggestive scenes

Running time: 158 minutes

Four stars out of five

The idea of a nearly three-hour movie where every single line of dialogue is offered up in song is exhausting. So is the notion of another take on Les Mis?rables, the Broadway phenomenon that hogged the pop culture spotlight for more than a decade and still failed to impress upon Americans their democratic debt to the French.

Yet, 32 years after Cosette?s windblown image and a waving tricolour became synonymous with Victor Hugo?s story of the June Rebellion and its victims, director Tom Hooper and the Hollywood Studios have created a filmed version of Les Mis that offers something the stage musical could not: close-ups.

This obvious advantage of the cinematic form might not seem all that important for people who?ve already latched on to the bosom of Liberty leading the people, and embraced Les Mis as a music-first experience ? but one should never underestimate the importance of a face that stretches 20 metres across a giant silver screen.

Humans are programmed to react to the tiniest change in facial musculature, allowing screen actors to access a whole other tool chest in their bid to animate character, and this advantage was clearly not lost on Hooper, who gives every faux urchin, enchantress, revolutionary and lawman a chance to showcase his or her thespian stuff.

Successfully creating an entire world before the lens, Hooper (The King?s Speech) develops a specific camera language to help him articulate such abstracts as mood, motivation and historical context.

Framing his characters in sooty black shadows ? frequently dousing their faces with rain as they gaze heavenward for an explanation for their continuing misery, Hooper pulls us into an intimate space with this tragic ensemble.

And in case you thought this might have some streak of upbeat brightness, let me be the first to pummel that optimism out of you before the emotional abuse begins in earnest.

This is a dark journey from start to finish as we follow the heartbreaking saga of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman). A good man who was forced to steal a loaf of bread to save his sister?s child at the height of revolutionary famine, Valjean is still a prisoner when we first meet him in the film?s opening scene hauling a square-rigger into dry dock alongside the other hard labourers.

?Look down?? they sing as the ever-vigilant guard Javert (Russell Crowe) eyes them like a bitter shepherd. As the slave chorus chants, Hooper alternates between close-ups of our two opposing heroes.

On one side we have the gnarled grimace of Valjean, a man who feels abandoned by everyone now that he?s spent the best years of his life as a convict. On the other, we have the symmetrical and stoic features of Javert, a man who finds a genuine sense of purpose in stalking Valjean with an edge of self-righteous compulsion.

They are both angry reflections of the other, destined to self-destruct, until the softening influence of a woman intervenes to alter both their fates.

Fantine (Anne Hathaway) is a virtuous woman, but she was exploited by her first love and abandoned with her daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried).

Shortly after we meet the moon-faced martyr in act one, she dies a horrific death ? but not before her altruism forever melts the heart of Valjean, or the first strains of an echoing musical motif worms its way into your subconscious.

Yes, Fantine dreamed a dream ? and for the next 90 minutes, it spirals into a feverish nightmare of narrative as her daughter is abused by a couple of colourful grifters (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), adopted by the transformed Valjean, courted by a student-turned-revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne) and finally released into love?s arms in the final scene.

These interpersonal bits and pieces of Hugo?s brilliant, bulky novel reach the screen with value-added cinematic oomph thanks to those tightly framed images that convey cartloads of emotion with every quivering lip.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the whole political framework of Les Mis?rables, a book that dared look at post-Revolution France with a damning critical eye. Unable to condense a century worth of social history into a hummable verse, neither the musical nor the movie are able to animate the story of the 1832 June Rebellion, or its significance to the evolution of the democratic ideal.

Sure, we get a lot of handsome young men rising up in heroic profile to stand atop barricades chanting slogans of social justice and freedom. But their sacrifice never finds an emotional anchor of meaning.

In some ways, the whole thing feels like an endless and largely monotonous parade of rotting pomp and tragic circumstance. All that singing could be interpreted as tuneful whining and whingeing, and no matter how catchy the tune, it?s still taxing to the psyche to watch such self-indulgent, unrelenting unhappiness played for spectacle.

What saves Hooper?s hulking vessel from sinking in a contrived sea of melancholy are the solid performances from every player onscreen.

Jackman is the oak-like main mast who gives the ship its emotional engine. Not only is his voice up to the challenge of the score, his thespian talent fills every crevice of the screen and makes you weep with empathy.

Crowe?s gruff vocals provide the perfect counterpoint to Jackman?s pristine notes, ensuring a driving masculine dynamic at all times, and Seyfried?s soprano rings high and clear ? offering an aural glimmer of love and hope.

Hathaway is the problematic variable because her droopy screen presence and goody-two-shoes persona could have rendered Fantine a mopey sop. Yet, even she prevails over the repetitive score to belt out a few killer verses.

Like the movie as a whole, these runs are dripping with sentiment ? much of it glazed and over-romanticized to exaggerate the noble cause of social justice, but thanks to Jackman and those close-ups, Hooper gives Les Mis?rables a real sense of soul and turns a potential dog into a fluffy French poodle with a brain as well as a fancy haircut.

CAPSULE REVIEW: Les Miserables ? Director Tom Hooper (The King?s Speech) brings? the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo?s novel to the big screen with emotionally palpable success thanks to an Oscar-worthy performance from Hugh Jackman and a tool chest full of cinematic goodies. From real world location shooting to well-timed close-ups of each character at their particular climax, the filmic elements bring a whole new dimension to the monotonous and grotesquely sentimental score. Yet, for all the emotional success, the historical and political sides of Hugo?s rich tale of social justice feel sadly undeveloped. Then again, no one goes to the movies for a history lesson. We go for the grand catharsis ? and Les Miserables unlaces its corset to fill its lungs and howl with dramatic abandon. Rating: Four stars out of five. ? Katherine Monk

Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/12/21/movie-review-les-miserables/

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