What aunt_zelda Thinks: Les Miserables

[aunt_zelda]

OH MY GOD I LOVED THIS MOVIE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING I'M SO HAPPY OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I ... I don't know where to begin.

Let's start with the critiques, because there are very few. Most are nitpicks, actually. And the biggest are things that I don't like in the show itself, so that's no fault of the movie. 
For example, Marius and Cosette? Nothing's really going to make me like them, I'm sorry, they're just so dull in the middle of all this epic revolution and death and revenge and forgiveness and personal struggles and ... a bland little love-at-first-sight thing. Maybe I'm in a minority here, but they've just never gotten to me and I tend to skip their songs when I listen to my CDs. The actors did an excellent job and I applaud them for sounding great and looking gorgeous and acting very well ... but I don't think anything will change my mind about Marius and Cosette, and trust me, I did my best to give them a fair chance and I was just ... bored with that little subplot.

However, Cosette's scens with Valjean were wonderful and heartbreaking, and Marius with his friends and Marius being oblivious to Eponine were great. Especially Marius and his friends, him singing "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" made me weep for all the right reasons. Well done, Eddie Redmayne, well done. (Though I must admit it's weird seeing him in this, I've previously only seen him in Medieval settings, such as Pillars of the Earth, or battling the Black Death.)

See, I tried to put in some critiques and I ended up going into more praise. 

Another thing I didn't quite like was some of the camera work. This is something that I've started to pick up on more and more now that I'm actively studying stuff like this, but ... well, for the most part I liked the more free almost hand-held feel of things and how they weren't afraid to get up close to people's faces and LEAVE IT there, not sweep around for some big dance number or to show off the set, just linger on people's faces while they sang and broke my heart ... but it was mostly that, and mostly people from the shoulders up, and the action sequences were shot too quickly so I didn't get to see things very clearly. Grrrr. But this is like three-five minutes worth of an epic movie and it didn't bother me too terribly, just a bit. People who don't scrutinize camera-work won't be bugged by that at all. 

Um ... other than that, what else? Um, the Santa gag was a bit over the top? Shooting Gavroche multiple times in broad daylight and the soldiers cackling about it was also a bit much. I mean ... really? Was that entirely necessary? *shrugs* I dunno, it bothered me, it might not bother other people. 

And while I love how they packed in as many songs as possible and performed them excellently, I did miss "Dog Eats Dog." That's a delightfully creepy and dark song that changes Thénardier from this comic relief character and shows how underneath that he's a vile creature who'll pry the boots off your feet when you're dead and knock out your gold teeth for good measure. I hope that's going to be in a deleted scene or a special feature somewhere, even though I expect it was cut before they even started filming. : (

Other than that ... wow. I loved everything. Everything. It was amazing and incredible and epic and intense and perfect and wonderful and it invoked all the right emotions in me. 

Right from the start. It starts in dead silence, which is a bit cheeky for a musical, but I liked it. Then the "pulling the ships into the harbor" scene we've all seen in the trailer, and it's a gorgeously intense moment to start with and pull us into the movie. I loved it. 

Hugh Jackman's got some kind of accent going on in this movie. I don't quite know what is is, but I loved it. 

I admit I was a bit leery of the idea of them singing live as they filmed. But it ... worked. Not once did I cringe at a voice or think it was bad. It was all so ... natural? Raw? Perfect? Something. If we lived in a world where people just happened to sing every now and again, this is how they would sound. Special mention to Anne Hathaway's heartwrenching performance of "I Dreamed a Dream." I have never heard it sung like that, and I am a better person for having heard it like that. It was so vulnerable and painful and personal and beautiful and raw and desperate and WOW. Just ... wow. She's hardly even in the movie but I can see why she's getting all these nominations for awards. She very much deserves them. Her Fantine has a sort of quiet desperation, a frantic strength, that I haven't seen from other Fantines who are all "too good for this sinful earth," you know, like saints who get kicked down constantly and then die after singing gorgeously. Anne Hathaway's Fantine is a real person. I mean, she's still got the kicked-puppy face at times, but she's not passive or anything. I loved her.

The Bishop was wonderful. Just perfect. (Fun fact, he played the original Jean Valjean on Broadway and the West End!)

Someone else who deserves a lot more mention than I've seen around is Russell Crowe as Javert. I have said many times that I'm not really a fan of Russell Crowe. He crops up in a lot of films I like, and he's a good enough actor, but his face doesn't quite move and that has weirded me out in the past. I was leery about the casting decision. I couldn't have been proved more wrong if they'd been actively holding up signs saying "Hey aunt_zelda, watch this!" Javert was my favorite part of this movie. I'm a big fan of his character but he's often shunted off to the side or made into a cartoony villain when he's really not. He's Lawful Good. He sticks to his principals even when he knows it's going to get him into trouble or even killed, and ultimately it's that rigidity and inability to comprehend that there might be another way to live or that Valjean is in fact the Nicest Most Selfless Man in France that leads to his death (more on that later.) So seeing Javert treated fairly in the movie, given his wonderful song "Stars" that contained some seriously upsetting imagery of suicide foreshadowing with him walking along the ledge of the roof, and ... pretty much every single scene he was in, all the time, chasing down Valjean and Cosette through those creepy back alleys, pretending to be a revolutionary and fighting them after being found out and ... jesus, I just loved every little moment. Seriously, I noticed this great second where he's confronting Valjean in the hospital and draws his sword, and as Valjean scrambles and begs and yanks a bit of wood off the wall to fight with Javert actually salutes with his sword before they start to fight, because even when fighting a guy he thinks of as a vile criminal he's got his honor, and we get to hear that great set of lines "I was born inside a jail / I was born with scum like you / I am from the gutter too" and I just whimpered and cried a bit because JAVERT I LOVE YOUR CHARACTER YOU ARE SO FASCINATING AND THE MOVIE SAW THAT AND LET YOU BE FASCINATING I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!
Also, his death. Oh my god his death. I was crying and whimpering "no" when it got to that point because I love the character so much and even though I knew he was going to jump I didn't want him to. What a fantastic scene. So upsetting to watch a guy go through that. I liked how he didn't wail or scream, he was almost as casual as he'd been through the whole movie ... which made it all the more unsettling. The way his foot sort of drifted over the edge a few times ... *shudders* And of course those moments brought us back to the earlier scene on the roof with him doing the same thing. Because being casual about that kind of stuff is a sign. *shudders* 
I do think the loud CRACK as he falls into the river and probably breaks all of his bones on that funnel type structure was a bit much. Couldn't we have kept things quiet and let the music take over there? *cries about Javert*

MAJOR props to the casting people, because this was the first time I've heard "Castle on a Cloud" and haven't cringed from the awful sickeningly sweet Cosette singing. Usually it's just ... ugh to me. (Again, personal preference here.) But this Cosette was very good. She didn't have a lot to do but she did it all very well indeed. 
Also the kid playing Gavroche. DAYUM. Sometimes Gavroche can grate on me, depends on the kid they've got playing him and how he sings his stuff. This kid kicked ass. Also I cried when he died. It was a bit over the top but the reactions of the ABCs sold me on it.

Oh, the ABCs. Oh boys. How I cried. I have to admit when it was down to Enjolras and Grantaire standing side by side by the window I covered my eyes and just cried into them. I'm seeing it again soon, so I'll try and watch that part but ... my god. 

My spirits rose so high during the crowd songs getting everyone jazzed up for the revolution. At one point I was on the edge of my seat and about to stand up and raise my fist and start singing, I kid you not. It was just so ... GUH. So intense and wonderful and powerful and inspiring. Civil Disobedience: The Musical! I especially loved those bits. If they hadn't gotten those bits down, the movie would have failed. 

Actually I was swaying a bit in my seat and tapping my hand against my knee quite a lot during this movie. And there were several points where I wanted to sing. They should have screenings where people are allowed to sing. I would totally go to one. 

Eponine was fantastic. They didn't overdo her, or try to make it all about how she's so wonderful and oh if only Marius would notice her, it was just like "she loves Marius, he doesn't notice her, it sucks, here she is binding her breasts and having the world's tiniest waist." She wasn't underplayed, but played at just the right level. Also, I am so goddamn happy she wasn't played by Taylor Swift. That would have been dreadful. I'm sure Taylor Swift is a nice person but I don't care of her, and she'd have been such a focal point for so many reviews if she'd been cast. So I'm very pleased with this Samantha Barks. She made me cry. 

The Thénardiers. Oh my good lord. I loved them. They were over the top and colorful and out of place and I loved them. So very much. I loved how Helena Bonham Carter was lascivious and disgusting and kept sticking stuff in her hair. I loved how Sacha Baron Cohen tackled another fun role in a musical (see also, Sweeney Todd) and made me forget that he usually does shock-comedy. The man is clearly talented, I don't know why he does that other stuff when he's got the voice and the talent for roles like this instead. The two of them were delightfully wicked and in love. That's an important thing for me, characters can be vile and dreadful and disgusting but if they're committed to each other (I don't mean monogamously, I mean emotionally) then I can enjoy them as characters. It's almost sweet, in a gross kind of way. They also loved Eponine, at least when she was a little kid, that was adorable, with her dad holding her on his lap while he weaseled more money out of the guests. 

I also loved the little nods to the book and the musical. Like Marius's grandfather, I know all the backstory there but most casual viewers won't. Little nods like that to enhance things make for a more enjoyable film, in my opinion. 

So, I know I probably forgot to talk about something in here, but if anyone who reads this is wondering about something I didn't mention here, ask away! I'm going to see it again, too, might post a follow-up about things I noticed in the second time around.

P.S. I will admit to enjoying seeing Javert tied up like a dog way more than I should have. And dragged out to the alley by Valjean, that's one of my favorite scenes in anything ever, honestly, I go crazy for those "Character A holds Character B's life in their hands and Character B expects to die but Character A spares them." Also, am I the only one who thought dirty thoughts when Javert begged Mayor!Valjean to punish him for daring to suspect he was a convict? Total closeted submissive there, I'm just saying, he was all: "I have disgraced the uniform ... no punishment can be harsh enough" or something to that effect. UNF.