In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert (Russell Crowe) after he breaks parole, he agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's (Anne Hathaway) daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried). The fateful decision changes their lives forever. The movie mainly takes place during the French Revolution.
I very much enjoyed the story for "Les Mis" and I can say it kept me interested. However, the movie is REALLY long. So if the movie would have been maybe 30 minutes shorter I could have enjoyed it a bit more.
The cast is pretty much the reason I thought the movie was good, not just OK. Because the cast is FANTASTIC! Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, and Hugh Jackman all give AMAZING performances and are all really good singers. It was kind of weird hearing them all sing, but they were good! I'm gonna predict Anne Hathaway has an Oscar coming her way for Best Supporting Actress, her performance as Fantine was incredible and I think she gave the best performance of the year for an actress. But besides those guys, I also loved Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, the Innkeepers, whenever they were in a song I just smiled the whole way through it, they were great! Also in the movie is Amanda Seyfried, who I think gave a pretty good performance as Fantine's daughter! And Samantha Barks who was also fantastic! But overall, I have not nothing but wonderful things to say about the cast.
My favorite song in the movie was probably "I Dreamed a Dream" sung by Anne Hathaway, it was absolutely fantastic. But like I said previously, I LOVED the song "Master of the House" sung by the innkeepers, the song definitely provided some comic relief for the film. Along with those I also highly enjoyed the song "One More Day". The point being, there was tons of amazing music in "Les Mis".
There are also a few things you should probably know about this film before you go see it. Firstly, it's almost all singing, their is some dialogue but not much. However, if you don't like musicals, you may still like the film. Secondly, all the actors are singing live, not singing to pre-recorded music like in most movie musicals. Kudos to Tom Hooper for doing this because it definitely works and adds something to the movie!
I did have a few problems with this film, one of them was that like I said earlier, the movie was just to long. I know it's probably close to the length of the Broadway show, but the movie just slows down at times. So if it would have been maybe 30 minutes shorter I would have liked it a bit more. The other problem I had was that some of the cinematography was really shaky. I don't know if that was on purpose, but I wasn't the biggest fan. I also have been hearing about a lot of people crying after this film. I did not cry, so I guess you could say this movie didn't have much of an emotional impact on me.
Overall, "Les Mis" is a lock for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscar's, but it will most likely not win. I think it will probably get beat by either "Lincoln", "Silver Linings Playbook", or "Zero Dark Thirty". Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the movie, just not as much as I would have loved. I would DEFINITELY still recommend seeing this film in theaters because it's a really cool theater experience. Also if your a huge fan of "Les Mis" in general and you have seen the Broadway Musical I'm sure you will love the movie a lot more then I did since up until I saw this film I was completely unfamiliar with the story.
Verdict: 4 out of 5
I am also quite sure that after the movie you will have some these songs stuck in your head! I know that I did.
Good summary and critique. I cannot believe I still haven't see it. And I've been at the movies like 7 times this past week!
ReplyDeleteThanks! What have you seen lately?
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