Les Misérables
Our family has watched it!!
I had some apprehensions before watching "Les Misérables".. I have never watched the musical but when I used to see the posters in London I used to think that the idea of fitting Hugo’s huge book into 2.5 hours of time is a very challenging one. But surprise! Overall, this wasn’t a big problem. Somehow they managed to fit all in and make it reasonably easy to understand.
Even my daughter who had never watched/read/heard of “Les Misérables” didn’t ask too many questions..
Overall, I liked the film. I didn’t love it but I thought it was good.
Pluses:
- Hugh Jackman was really good. He is famous for his singing abilities, and he hasn’t disappointed here. I must add that I am a big fan of his anyways.. Jean Valjean is the pivotal character for the story and Jackman’s great performance meant everything else worked well.
- Russell Crowe is another staple. I am not a huge fan of his but I liked him in "Les Miserables" a great deal. He was the first ever actor in the role of Javier (I have seen several movie and TV versions of Les Miserables) that made me interested in the character. His last scene is one of the most haunting scenes in the film.
- Some really good actors in the minor roles: Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche), Samantha Barks (Eponine) and of course Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as Thénardiers.
Minuses:
- All three of us very quickly discovered one problem with Les Miserables: the film had no dialogue or any other scenes that didn’t involve singing. As my daughter said: it was a three-hour long song. For all three of us this became daunting very quickly! I would have really liked it much better if the film included some dialogues or other scenes as, for example, “The Phantom of The Opera” did. I am not a big Musical or Opera goer (I have watched few Musicals and Operas in the theatre in the past, but I don't go that often). But for some reason the lack of not-sang dialogue didn’t bother me in the theatre. But in a form of a film the same thing was too much.
- Amanda Seyfried as older Cosette didn’t impress me much. But may be this is because her role consisted entirely of falling in love with Marius and getting married.
Singing:
As far as singing goes, my favourites were:
Hugh Jackman (goes without saying)
Samantha Barks - she was by far the best female singer. I would have preferred Marius to end up with her character (Eponine)!
Daniel Huttlestone - he was absolutely precious as Gavroche and his voice was fabulous
Russell Crowe - I have never expected him to sing so well
I had some apprehensions before watching "Les Misérables".. I have never watched the musical but when I used to see the posters in London I used to think that the idea of fitting Hugo’s huge book into 2.5 hours of time is a very challenging one. But surprise! Overall, this wasn’t a big problem. Somehow they managed to fit all in and make it reasonably easy to understand.
Even my daughter who had never watched/read/heard of “Les Misérables” didn’t ask too many questions..
Overall, I liked the film. I didn’t love it but I thought it was good.
Pluses:
- Hugh Jackman was really good. He is famous for his singing abilities, and he hasn’t disappointed here. I must add that I am a big fan of his anyways.. Jean Valjean is the pivotal character for the story and Jackman’s great performance meant everything else worked well.
- Russell Crowe is another staple. I am not a huge fan of his but I liked him in "Les Miserables" a great deal. He was the first ever actor in the role of Javier (I have seen several movie and TV versions of Les Miserables) that made me interested in the character. His last scene is one of the most haunting scenes in the film.
- Some really good actors in the minor roles: Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche), Samantha Barks (Eponine) and of course Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as Thénardiers.
Minuses:
- All three of us very quickly discovered one problem with Les Miserables: the film had no dialogue or any other scenes that didn’t involve singing. As my daughter said: it was a three-hour long song. For all three of us this became daunting very quickly! I would have really liked it much better if the film included some dialogues or other scenes as, for example, “The Phantom of The Opera” did. I am not a big Musical or Opera goer (I have watched few Musicals and Operas in the theatre in the past, but I don't go that often). But for some reason the lack of not-sang dialogue didn’t bother me in the theatre. But in a form of a film the same thing was too much.
- Amanda Seyfried as older Cosette didn’t impress me much. But may be this is because her role consisted entirely of falling in love with Marius and getting married.
Singing:
As far as singing goes, my favourites were:
Hugh Jackman (goes without saying)
Samantha Barks - she was by far the best female singer. I would have preferred Marius to end up with her character (Eponine)!
Daniel Huttlestone - he was absolutely precious as Gavroche and his voice was fabulous
Russell Crowe - I have never expected him to sing so well