Les Miserables: Your Budget is Showing
A review of Les Miserables, the movie. Under cut because heavy spoilers.
I do think they used a different audio recording for the trailer because I remembered Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" differently, as compared to the movie.
But let me just go with the sequence of the movie, in as accurate order as possible.
Good voices, good voices. But right from the start I already mentally commented that this is indeed a movie cast and not a Broadway one, and I haven't even seen or heard the a Broadway/West End performance for this production.
ANNE HATHAWAY
- I see she's going to win something. Nominated? Definitely, but damn she better win something. Phenomenal performance of everything and such an amazing voice. Now I do want to get the CD OST of this movie just to hear how she sounded for the studio recording. Not to mention that she is the only one who managed to bring tears to my eyes with her singing. Twice. I wish she didn't have to stop singing. I wish she sung for the WHOLE movie.
RUSSELL CROWE
- Sounds decent overall, quite in a Boyzone boyband kinda way, but better. My dear friend who watched with me thought there were the few high notes which he struggled to hit. His first solo on the roof was pretty good, except I don't know what happened to his acting/face for a few moments and it stole the beauty of the moment. I thought he did pretty amazing in his duet with Hugh though (the fight in the hospital). I thought maybe he struggled with rhythm in the beginning of the movie, until that duet. So maybe that off-rhythm was intention, or something else. But, most of the time, the I-Don't-Know-What-Your-Face-Is-Doing moments kinda ruined the scenes.
HUGH JACKMAN
- His acting held, but I was disappointed in his voice. I've heard from a friend who is a huge fan of Hugh that he did Broadway and was voiced trained by the same vocal coach of some great singer. Perhaps that's why I had a high expectation. His duet with Russell would be an amazing overlay of rhythms and tunes but alas, the strength and volume of his voice fell short. He was on key, hit the right notes I'm sure (bare in mind I haven't heard ANY of Les Mis' songs other than "I Dreamed A Dream"), but man did he struggle with the higher keys. The vocal strength was hardly there. The solo he did when his character found the man his daughter loves turned/felt a bit creepy halfway through. Towards the end, the strength of the higher notes he struggled to sustain was almost painful to watch. I actually braced myself for that final note (Sorry Hugh fans). His singing style, perhaps, did break the harmony/"atmosphere" of some trios/quartets, but the final one before his character's death was amazing.
ISABELLE ALLEN
- Voice of an angel. Really good acting too. When she opened her mouth to sing, I was floored. Too bad she didn't appear in a huge part of the movie.
HELENA BONHAM CARTER
- SUCH a joy to watch. Her voice wasn't a powerhouse, but perhaps her parts didn't give us a chance to find out. I thought she played her role to perfection. (side note: I was expecting Johnny Depp to appear as her husband in character. There was also one part that reminded me very much of Sweeney Todd)
DANIEL HUTTLESTONE
- So adorable. An amazing performance by him too. I do wonder where he's from, since he does sing with an accent. Amazing! And his acting is awesome.
EDDIE REDMAYNE
- Beautiful voice. But I got too distracted with his face and not in the good way. Remember how Lea Michele sings in the beginning of Glee? Pretty much that, only worse. I suppose you can chalk that up to 'good acting', since there are several moments where he didn't go all over the top red-faced and lip-quivering when he sings. His duet with Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried (separately) had me thinking he could be the next Fiyero (Wicked) and/or Raoul (Phantom of the Opera)
AARON TVEIT
- Do you get that urge to IMDb someone right then and there when you see their face and think, "Damn, where have I seen you before?" That was how I felt the whole time he was on screen. Well, well, Trip van der Bilt of "Gossip Girl", I didn't know you can sing like that. Very, very good vocals. (At this point, my mental commentary was "The awkward moment when you realize the kids in the show can sing better than the adults". But then, I seem to remember someone told me that the focus for this production is on the kid characters.)
BERTIE CARVEL
- I sure hope I got the right person. The only 'comparison' I got was his out-of-character photos through "Google images" as there were none on imdb, nor wikipedia, also none of him in character in this movie. He's that dark, curly-haired guy who gets about 3, 4 solo lines but after each ONE solo line the chorus comes in. He's the one who sang "Red", "Black" after Eddie sings his song about the girl to Aaron. Why do I mention him? His very first solo line made me melt. Yes, he is that good.
AMANDA SEYFRIED
- I've heard her before in Mama Mia, but I thought she sounded better here than what I remembered. She did look a tad like Kate Winslet, or maybe that's just me. Her duet with Eddie was when I thought "Hey, they could be Christine Daae and Raoul in Phantom of the Opera!" Such a pretty voice, and man, those high notes. Like whoa.
SAMANTHA BARKS
- I'm not sure if I'd see the bits of Idina Menzel influence had I not known beforehand that she was coached/mentored by Menzel in a singing contest. I saw more of Kelly Clarkson, though. She does have some great vocals and great acting too. Her duet with Eddie made me think of Elphaba and Fiyero of Wicked. This might be influenced by the prior knowledge of Idina-coaching and having heard her sing "Defying Gravity".
RANDOM BITS
- The trio done by Samantha, Amanda and Eddie was BEAUTIFUL.
- Eponine you are an IDIOT. *facepalm*
- "Knee deep in shit" took on a literal meaning.
- Javert's (Russell Crowe's character) suicide: that MUST have hurt like a bitch. Don't think it's far enough a fall for anyone to have died mid-fall than on-impact. OUCH.
- The final scene was bitter sweet. Everyone in a better place, they're free of suffering, but DAMN that's a LOT of people that died.
- The girls that scrubbed the floor after the last of the revolution was killed (damn the heartless souls killed the little boy), they can sing! Not in the "hold a tune" kind of way.
- The only chorus that I really liked were of the boys from the Revolution.
I need to not expect Broadway/West End "standards" when I watch a musical-turned-movie. But the fact that I walked into the cinema with expectations of it sounding at least almost as good as it would a stage performance, and walked out highly impressed by quite a number of their voices and performance, it says something about their talents.
Why did I say "your budget is showing"? Notice how those with phenomenal voices had smaller roles. It's almost like the better their vocals, the smaller their role. lol. Also, my friend and I scratched our heads over the casting of Russell Crowe. We did remember Gerald Butler doing pretty darn well as the Phantom in the movie-musical of "Phantom of the Opera"...
I do think they used a different audio recording for the trailer because I remembered Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" differently, as compared to the movie.
But let me just go with the sequence of the movie, in as accurate order as possible.
Good voices, good voices. But right from the start I already mentally commented that this is indeed a movie cast and not a Broadway one, and I haven't even seen or heard the a Broadway/West End performance for this production.
ANNE HATHAWAY
- I see she's going to win something. Nominated? Definitely, but damn she better win something. Phenomenal performance of everything and such an amazing voice. Now I do want to get the CD OST of this movie just to hear how she sounded for the studio recording. Not to mention that she is the only one who managed to bring tears to my eyes with her singing. Twice. I wish she didn't have to stop singing. I wish she sung for the WHOLE movie.
RUSSELL CROWE
- Sounds decent overall, quite in a Boyzone boyband kinda way, but better. My dear friend who watched with me thought there were the few high notes which he struggled to hit. His first solo on the roof was pretty good, except I don't know what happened to his acting/face for a few moments and it stole the beauty of the moment. I thought he did pretty amazing in his duet with Hugh though (the fight in the hospital). I thought maybe he struggled with rhythm in the beginning of the movie, until that duet. So maybe that off-rhythm was intention, or something else. But, most of the time, the I-Don't-Know-What-Your-Face-Is-Doing moments kinda ruined the scenes.
HUGH JACKMAN
- His acting held, but I was disappointed in his voice. I've heard from a friend who is a huge fan of Hugh that he did Broadway and was voiced trained by the same vocal coach of some great singer. Perhaps that's why I had a high expectation. His duet with Russell would be an amazing overlay of rhythms and tunes but alas, the strength and volume of his voice fell short. He was on key, hit the right notes I'm sure (bare in mind I haven't heard ANY of Les Mis' songs other than "I Dreamed A Dream"), but man did he struggle with the higher keys. The vocal strength was hardly there. The solo he did when his character found the man his daughter loves turned/felt a bit creepy halfway through. Towards the end, the strength of the higher notes he struggled to sustain was almost painful to watch. I actually braced myself for that final note (Sorry Hugh fans). His singing style, perhaps, did break the harmony/"atmosphere" of some trios/quartets, but the final one before his character's death was amazing.
ISABELLE ALLEN
- Voice of an angel. Really good acting too. When she opened her mouth to sing, I was floored. Too bad she didn't appear in a huge part of the movie.
HELENA BONHAM CARTER
- SUCH a joy to watch. Her voice wasn't a powerhouse, but perhaps her parts didn't give us a chance to find out. I thought she played her role to perfection. (side note: I was expecting Johnny Depp to appear as her husband in character. There was also one part that reminded me very much of Sweeney Todd)
DANIEL HUTTLESTONE
- So adorable. An amazing performance by him too. I do wonder where he's from, since he does sing with an accent. Amazing! And his acting is awesome.
EDDIE REDMAYNE
- Beautiful voice. But I got too distracted with his face and not in the good way. Remember how Lea Michele sings in the beginning of Glee? Pretty much that, only worse. I suppose you can chalk that up to 'good acting', since there are several moments where he didn't go all over the top red-faced and lip-quivering when he sings. His duet with Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried (separately) had me thinking he could be the next Fiyero (Wicked) and/or Raoul (Phantom of the Opera)
AARON TVEIT
- Do you get that urge to IMDb someone right then and there when you see their face and think, "Damn, where have I seen you before?" That was how I felt the whole time he was on screen. Well, well, Trip van der Bilt of "Gossip Girl", I didn't know you can sing like that. Very, very good vocals. (At this point, my mental commentary was "The awkward moment when you realize the kids in the show can sing better than the adults". But then, I seem to remember someone told me that the focus for this production is on the kid characters.)
BERTIE CARVEL
- I sure hope I got the right person. The only 'comparison' I got was his out-of-character photos through "Google images" as there were none on imdb, nor wikipedia, also none of him in character in this movie. He's that dark, curly-haired guy who gets about 3, 4 solo lines but after each ONE solo line the chorus comes in. He's the one who sang "Red", "Black" after Eddie sings his song about the girl to Aaron. Why do I mention him? His very first solo line made me melt. Yes, he is that good.
AMANDA SEYFRIED
- I've heard her before in Mama Mia, but I thought she sounded better here than what I remembered. She did look a tad like Kate Winslet, or maybe that's just me. Her duet with Eddie was when I thought "Hey, they could be Christine Daae and Raoul in Phantom of the Opera!" Such a pretty voice, and man, those high notes. Like whoa.
SAMANTHA BARKS
- I'm not sure if I'd see the bits of Idina Menzel influence had I not known beforehand that she was coached/mentored by Menzel in a singing contest. I saw more of Kelly Clarkson, though. She does have some great vocals and great acting too. Her duet with Eddie made me think of Elphaba and Fiyero of Wicked. This might be influenced by the prior knowledge of Idina-coaching and having heard her sing "Defying Gravity".
RANDOM BITS
- The trio done by Samantha, Amanda and Eddie was BEAUTIFUL.
- Eponine you are an IDIOT. *facepalm*
- "Knee deep in shit" took on a literal meaning.
- Javert's (Russell Crowe's character) suicide: that MUST have hurt like a bitch. Don't think it's far enough a fall for anyone to have died mid-fall than on-impact. OUCH.
- The final scene was bitter sweet. Everyone in a better place, they're free of suffering, but DAMN that's a LOT of people that died.
- The girls that scrubbed the floor after the last of the revolution was killed (damn the heartless souls killed the little boy), they can sing! Not in the "hold a tune" kind of way.
- The only chorus that I really liked were of the boys from the Revolution.
I need to not expect Broadway/West End "standards" when I watch a musical-turned-movie. But the fact that I walked into the cinema with expectations of it sounding at least almost as good as it would a stage performance, and walked out highly impressed by quite a number of their voices and performance, it says something about their talents.
Why did I say "your budget is showing"? Notice how those with phenomenal voices had smaller roles. It's almost like the better their vocals, the smaller their role. lol. Also, my friend and I scratched our heads over the casting of Russell Crowe. We did remember Gerald Butler doing pretty darn well as the Phantom in the movie-musical of "Phantom of the Opera"...