Les Miserables movie!!!
Russell Crowe, I apologize for being so suspicious. Your singing was kind of flat, but you played Javert very well.
I reeeeeally could have done without all those close-ups during solos; I get what the director was going for, using them to imitate the play staging of the solos, but it bordered on claustrophobic. Not to mention the makeup department must have wanted to kill him.
On the other hand, this is the only time I’ve ever cared about Marius and Cosette’s storyline, so I have to give props for that. Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever given a damn about Marius at all, so the actor definitely did a great job. (The “Red and Black” scene especially! Though that was helped by the fact that movies can do what plays can’t: give a real sense of characters’ interactions to the entire audience. Enjolras does not want to listen to your soppy romance, Marius! Shut your face.) (The one student protesting Enjolras giving Javert over to Valjean was also a fantastic example of this-the best, honestly. Since so much of the barricade plot was hampered by the fact that you didn’t get a sense of the students as individuals aside from Marius and Enjolras, that was a good touch.)
Though the barricade scenes were also hampered by some of the editing to the songs, too, especially “Drink With Me.” I love love loved that they pulled in some of the scenes from the book to flesh out the movie (the breaking into Paris by climbing over walls! wonderful), and having Grantaire choose to be executed beside Enjolras is no exception; but since so much of Drink With Me was cut, you didn’t get the emphasis that Grantaire was an alcoholic cynic who didn’t fit with the rest of the Friends of the ABC, and that Enjolras called him out on how his attitude was infecting the others, that gave his standing beside Enjolras at death its poignancy.
(Also raised an eyebrow at cutting the last verse of “The Bargain,” since it brought up a very good point, namely, Valjean, you are buying a little girl. Kind of skeevy! [Though considering that they brought in that song with Valjean and Cosette in the carriage, maybe they decided it was better to just…gloss over that fact. That song was really just a wee bit questionable in terms of content.]) I don’t know if it was the cutting of verses &c. and changing the pacing of the tempo of some of the songs that made the movie feel so rushed at times, but it really did. Maybe it’s just a consequence of the musical, though; transitions that are forgiven on stage because of the forced spatial/time restrictions are not so easily overlooked in movies.
Basically there were several things I thought weren’t done very well in this movie. I liked it! But given how much I love Les Miserables, it was inevitable that I would like it; I am skewed data on that front. The fact that I don’t feel particularly compelled to rewatch it is probably the most damning review. I’ll buy the DVD when it comes out, because the movie did well by the characters-it really made you want to see and know more about their relationships, to extrapolate what occurred off-scene. And some of the visuals were beautiful; and Anne Hathaway was kickass. But it had flaws, and some were pretty big. (Those damn closeups.)
Russell Crowe did not fuck up Javert, though. So I am content.
(I'd say Javert is my spirit animal, but it's really more like I originally saw Les Miz at such a young age that he imprinted on my soul. ...To the point where when one of my job duties included chasing down deadbeats who stole library materials, I eventually got too good at it. At which time my boss reassigned that task to someone with a little more Christian compassion in their soul.
It was a little disconcerting to be reminded of that while watching the movie.)
I reeeeeally could have done without all those close-ups during solos; I get what the director was going for, using them to imitate the play staging of the solos, but it bordered on claustrophobic. Not to mention the makeup department must have wanted to kill him.
On the other hand, this is the only time I’ve ever cared about Marius and Cosette’s storyline, so I have to give props for that. Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever given a damn about Marius at all, so the actor definitely did a great job. (The “Red and Black” scene especially! Though that was helped by the fact that movies can do what plays can’t: give a real sense of characters’ interactions to the entire audience. Enjolras does not want to listen to your soppy romance, Marius! Shut your face.) (The one student protesting Enjolras giving Javert over to Valjean was also a fantastic example of this-the best, honestly. Since so much of the barricade plot was hampered by the fact that you didn’t get a sense of the students as individuals aside from Marius and Enjolras, that was a good touch.)
Though the barricade scenes were also hampered by some of the editing to the songs, too, especially “Drink With Me.” I love love loved that they pulled in some of the scenes from the book to flesh out the movie (the breaking into Paris by climbing over walls! wonderful), and having Grantaire choose to be executed beside Enjolras is no exception; but since so much of Drink With Me was cut, you didn’t get the emphasis that Grantaire was an alcoholic cynic who didn’t fit with the rest of the Friends of the ABC, and that Enjolras called him out on how his attitude was infecting the others, that gave his standing beside Enjolras at death its poignancy.
(Also raised an eyebrow at cutting the last verse of “The Bargain,” since it brought up a very good point, namely, Valjean, you are buying a little girl. Kind of skeevy! [Though considering that they brought in that song with Valjean and Cosette in the carriage, maybe they decided it was better to just…gloss over that fact. That song was really just a wee bit questionable in terms of content.]) I don’t know if it was the cutting of verses &c. and changing the pacing of the tempo of some of the songs that made the movie feel so rushed at times, but it really did. Maybe it’s just a consequence of the musical, though; transitions that are forgiven on stage because of the forced spatial/time restrictions are not so easily overlooked in movies.
Basically there were several things I thought weren’t done very well in this movie. I liked it! But given how much I love Les Miserables, it was inevitable that I would like it; I am skewed data on that front. The fact that I don’t feel particularly compelled to rewatch it is probably the most damning review. I’ll buy the DVD when it comes out, because the movie did well by the characters-it really made you want to see and know more about their relationships, to extrapolate what occurred off-scene. And some of the visuals were beautiful; and Anne Hathaway was kickass. But it had flaws, and some were pretty big. (Those damn closeups.)
Russell Crowe did not fuck up Javert, though. So I am content.
(I'd say Javert is my spirit animal, but it's really more like I originally saw Les Miz at such a young age that he imprinted on my soul. ...To the point where when one of my job duties included chasing down deadbeats who stole library materials, I eventually got too good at it. At which time my boss reassigned that task to someone with a little more Christian compassion in their soul.
It was a little disconcerting to be reminded of that while watching the movie.)