My review of Les Miserables
Jan. 1st, 2013 04:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameYou may find it relevant going in that I am a fan of musicals in general, and saw and loved the stage production of Les Mis as a teenager.
I thought the opening song ("Look Down") and sequence looked weirdly CGI fake and that it was potentially going to be really hard to get into, based on how everyone was moving in synchronized rhythm and Russell Crowe did not appear the slightest bit scary as the main villain.
BUT, it was undeniably nuts how well they did at making Hugh Jackman look like a filthy and desperate slave, and impressive how well he did at acting and singing at the same time. The church and priest bit was touching and cool and I got more optimistic.
Then came Anne Hathaway as Fantine, and geez. That was all perfect. In the factory, in the alleyways, in the hospital. I mean the actual Victor Hugo plotline is pretty fucking over the top and that is definitely conveyed here, but it is what it is, and she was so pretty with her thick long shiny hair and so TOTALLY NOT PRETTY as she sobbed and sang with dirt and blood all over her face, bald - it really earns my respect when an A list Hollywood actress is willing to truly venture away from being attractive for a role. I don't see that very often, they do "prude" as "Victoria's Secret Angel in a bun and glasses, with natural tones makeup" and "exhausted" is shown with posture and dialogue only - even in zombie rags and makeups chicks tend to go for flattering shadows and clothes that hug curves. This wasn't like that. This was real shit, aesthetically. Throughout the movie, actually, I kept thinking over and over again how WEIRD and interesting it was to see big name stars on theater sized screens, with...pores. And wrinkles. And red noses from crying, and chapped lips, and so on and so forth. They looked like human beings, the whole way through, rather than the sort of cyborg perfection we've all gotten used to.
Anyway, back to Fantine - that was some fucking out of control "I Dreamed a Dream," my God, I just imagine every other woman who might have had hope for an Oscar slamming down their popcorn and running out of the theater because it is just ALL. OVER. The camera stays on her face, closeup, for an entire song, which is so outside the normal rules of major release editing but never drug for a second. I was crying steadily. That prostitution scene was so rape-y, and that death scene with the child hallucinations was so ugh, just gah.
By this point I was already getting emotionally exhausted and thinking to myself, "Well, it's not called 'First World Problems,' or 'The Mostly Content Folks,' after all..." Then comes this beautiful, filthy waif child Cosette with her rag doll and her angel voice - she was really lovely and did a great job.
Personally...as a huge Helena Bonham Carter fan and someone who is sort of revoltedly drawn toward Sasha Baron Cohen, their "Master of the House" romp was SO AWESOME. I was laughing hysterically at them cutting cat tails off for sausage and gathering jars of stolen glass eyeballs, but I love that kind of thing ;) All the double entendres and shameless hamming were perfect, they were perfect, and damn has a movie ever needed comic relief more? I doubt it.
Here's the thing - everything I've described thus far was in the first hour and a half of the film. It's TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG. And, unfortunately, once Jean Valjean has Cosette there is one awesome moment when we see her call him Papa and think, "Aww" and then another where she's all grown up and stunning and has obviously been cherished and saved...after which I was kinda bored for a really really long time before I was allowed to leave the theater, while next generations of people met and the original characters aged and the June Rebellion took center stage, with a whole rag tag bunch of people you don't know from Adam doing things with great drama that you just don't care much about.
I mean, ok, it wasn't horrible or anything - here are a few moments I still enjoyed:
-the little blond boy leading the rebels was cute and did a great job with his part
-when they were calling civillians to throw their furniture down into the streets to form the baricades and somebody dropped a piano, that was something
-it was FUCKING HORRIBLE but I was at least riveted to the screen, when they were in the sewers after the battle
-anytime Helena and Sasha made return cameos was entertaining
But I found myself thinking things like, "'empty seats at empty tables,' really, that's the one over arching metaphor you chose to represent all the dead in a battle where ALL THE FURNITURE WAS TOSSED AND DESTROYED?! You are sitting there in a totally empty room gesturing at nothing!"
The acting stayed well done, the cinematography was still fine, it's just...very long. And all over the place. It's not like it was a terrible movie in the last half or anything, but...it's a strange and anticlimactic experience when you cry twice and laugh a lot, all in the very beginning of a movie and then not any more. It's awkward when all the best songs are the first few songs, and those are the ones you walk around having caught in your head for the next two days, while the last few songs were really just needlessly, inexplicably...sung dialogue.
Overall, I would really love to watch that first hour another time or two - maybe even badly enough to take Ananda and Aaron to see it while it's still in theaters :) But I will be sorely tempted to duck out and sit on my phone in the lobby while they slog through to the credits without me, after Cosette appears as a woman.
I thought the opening song ("Look Down") and sequence looked weirdly CGI fake and that it was potentially going to be really hard to get into, based on how everyone was moving in synchronized rhythm and Russell Crowe did not appear the slightest bit scary as the main villain.
BUT, it was undeniably nuts how well they did at making Hugh Jackman look like a filthy and desperate slave, and impressive how well he did at acting and singing at the same time. The church and priest bit was touching and cool and I got more optimistic.
Then came Anne Hathaway as Fantine, and geez. That was all perfect. In the factory, in the alleyways, in the hospital. I mean the actual Victor Hugo plotline is pretty fucking over the top and that is definitely conveyed here, but it is what it is, and she was so pretty with her thick long shiny hair and so TOTALLY NOT PRETTY as she sobbed and sang with dirt and blood all over her face, bald - it really earns my respect when an A list Hollywood actress is willing to truly venture away from being attractive for a role. I don't see that very often, they do "prude" as "Victoria's Secret Angel in a bun and glasses, with natural tones makeup" and "exhausted" is shown with posture and dialogue only - even in zombie rags and makeups chicks tend to go for flattering shadows and clothes that hug curves. This wasn't like that. This was real shit, aesthetically. Throughout the movie, actually, I kept thinking over and over again how WEIRD and interesting it was to see big name stars on theater sized screens, with...pores. And wrinkles. And red noses from crying, and chapped lips, and so on and so forth. They looked like human beings, the whole way through, rather than the sort of cyborg perfection we've all gotten used to.
Anyway, back to Fantine - that was some fucking out of control "I Dreamed a Dream," my God, I just imagine every other woman who might have had hope for an Oscar slamming down their popcorn and running out of the theater because it is just ALL. OVER. The camera stays on her face, closeup, for an entire song, which is so outside the normal rules of major release editing but never drug for a second. I was crying steadily. That prostitution scene was so rape-y, and that death scene with the child hallucinations was so ugh, just gah.
By this point I was already getting emotionally exhausted and thinking to myself, "Well, it's not called 'First World Problems,' or 'The Mostly Content Folks,' after all..." Then comes this beautiful, filthy waif child Cosette with her rag doll and her angel voice - she was really lovely and did a great job.
Personally...as a huge Helena Bonham Carter fan and someone who is sort of revoltedly drawn toward Sasha Baron Cohen, their "Master of the House" romp was SO AWESOME. I was laughing hysterically at them cutting cat tails off for sausage and gathering jars of stolen glass eyeballs, but I love that kind of thing ;) All the double entendres and shameless hamming were perfect, they were perfect, and damn has a movie ever needed comic relief more? I doubt it.
Here's the thing - everything I've described thus far was in the first hour and a half of the film. It's TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG. And, unfortunately, once Jean Valjean has Cosette there is one awesome moment when we see her call him Papa and think, "Aww" and then another where she's all grown up and stunning and has obviously been cherished and saved...after which I was kinda bored for a really really long time before I was allowed to leave the theater, while next generations of people met and the original characters aged and the June Rebellion took center stage, with a whole rag tag bunch of people you don't know from Adam doing things with great drama that you just don't care much about.
I mean, ok, it wasn't horrible or anything - here are a few moments I still enjoyed:
-the little blond boy leading the rebels was cute and did a great job with his part
-when they were calling civillians to throw their furniture down into the streets to form the baricades and somebody dropped a piano, that was something
-it was FUCKING HORRIBLE but I was at least riveted to the screen, when they were in the sewers after the battle
-anytime Helena and Sasha made return cameos was entertaining
But I found myself thinking things like, "'empty seats at empty tables,' really, that's the one over arching metaphor you chose to represent all the dead in a battle where ALL THE FURNITURE WAS TOSSED AND DESTROYED?! You are sitting there in a totally empty room gesturing at nothing!"
The acting stayed well done, the cinematography was still fine, it's just...very long. And all over the place. It's not like it was a terrible movie in the last half or anything, but...it's a strange and anticlimactic experience when you cry twice and laugh a lot, all in the very beginning of a movie and then not any more. It's awkward when all the best songs are the first few songs, and those are the ones you walk around having caught in your head for the next two days, while the last few songs were really just needlessly, inexplicably...sung dialogue.
Overall, I would really love to watch that first hour another time or two - maybe even badly enough to take Ananda and Aaron to see it while it's still in theaters :) But I will be sorely tempted to duck out and sit on my phone in the lobby while they slog through to the credits without me, after Cosette appears as a woman.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:54 am (UTC)The squares can all go back to their seats and give shits about the French revolution.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 03:58 pm (UTC)Also--ha. I watched and loved the show as a teen also, and the whole "empty chairs at empty tables--but we have no furniture because it's all on the barricade" thing never occurred to me. Priceless.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 07:30 pm (UTC)But really, while Russell Crowe's acting was terrific, HE SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO SING. "Stars" is one of my favorite songs and I wanted him to fall off the building to end the misery.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 08:52 pm (UTC)THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ALREADY HAPPENED
IT'S THE JUNE REBELLION
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:28 pm (UTC)Honestly now that I'm thinking about it in the context of your second comment I kinda can't believe how prevalent the idea in the media and with other (you know, real) critics is, that it was the Revolution.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, we live a world where every Christmas I manage to shock and amaze someone new close to me that the Immaculate Conception does not refer to Mary getting pregnant with Jesus...and that genuinely bothers me, so I will edit my post ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-06 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-02 10:57 pm (UTC)Any moment now, I expect a release of Miss Saigon.
Test, just a test
Date: 2013-03-31 07:13 pm (UTC)