Movie Review: Les Misérables

Les Miserables: In this case, less is more.

I am fully prepared to be attacked by the audience who loved the film, backlashes, tomatoes, prison sentences and all!

I've recently taken the liberty of purchasing the film from the PlayStation Store on PS3. I thought to myself, "Hey, you love Anne Hathaway, you love Hugh Jackman, you've heard a lot of buzz about this movie for months, why not buy this movie?" I scurried to the "purchase" link on the screen like an anxious, hungry fat boy to his sugar-drenched candy. God, was I hungry for this movie. Within seconds I was watching the film. It started off pretty solid. The cinematography was great: their uses of accentuating basic colors of white, blue, and red was very symbolic and put to good use. Trouble with the film came quite early, sadly. I felt that the story itself escalated way too quickly. One moment Hugh's pulling a boat, the next he's a free man. The story didn't fully explicate the cruelty and forcefulness of the french government. The audience is left with just the empty statement that Jean Valjean went to jail for an extreme amount of time just for stealing loaf of bread. Russell Crowe, sadly, didn't deliver as Javert. The chase between Javert and Valjean wasn't as enticing and thrilling as it was between them in the lower budget 98' version of the film with Geoffrey Rush and Liam Neeson, a truly powerful duo. There were plenty of things that just didn't sit right with me in the movie. The following is a list:

Things that didn't sit right: 

Valjean's upbringing to an honest, heroic man: the film didn't fully go into as to how Valjean became the good man he is. It was but a simple, short clip of him at a convent, explaining his wrongs and throwing away his papers. Cut to 8 years later, BOOM, he's an honest and good businessman. How dandy that life works out that way.

Fantine's role in the movie: Anne Hathaway, being as brilliant as she is, made the most out of the rough 10 minutes she was in this film -FYI one of the shortest featurings in supporting roles in Oscar history and she still managed an award, god bless her. Her role was, like her new haircut, short and sweet. She lives, gets fired then dies, but before so, presents us with her glorious gift of song. I was stunned to find out the hard way that the version of I Dreamed A Dream that she sang in the trailer- which made me cry, by the way- was not the same version sung in the movie. Instead she presented a more raspy, thrusting sort of sound other than soft whispers. This version did not make me cry. 

The overall production of the movie: I felt the film itself presented something entirely unbecoming from the story. The whole production was completely over-the-top and unnecessary, which presented a bourgeois essence, something that can relate more to the upper class of the story rather than its true heart and soul, the squalor-ridden lower class. This is a clumsy misdirection on both the set designer and the director's part. The story does not and should not rely on hoity-toity set design, fancy-schmancy cameras and editing to truly express the beauty in the story. The story itself is what makes it beautiful. 98's version of the movie presented a much more simpler design, and with that, the audience was not distracted from the core of the story.

Cosette and Marius's relationship: I find it hard to believe that after 5 minutes of their first encounter, Marius and Cosette loved each other. They didn't even kiss and they knew they loved each other. It simply doesn't work that way. They aren't Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet got together twice before they announced their love to each other. 98's version showed that Cosette and Marius snuck out a couple of times as teenagers do and got better acquainted. This version completely cut out the communication from these two and as a result presented a weak feeling of emotion in these characters and their relationship.

The singing: It got annoying after a while. I find it unnecessary to sing every word when some people are mediocre singers at best *cough cough* Russell Crowe.

Javert's death: It was abrupt, empty, and unsatisfying. Like a bird hitting a window, quick and inexplicable. 

Cosette's life completely cut out: We see very few shots of Cosette throughout the whole movie. Again, escalating too quickly. One moment she's a little kid and poor the next she's a youngster in love, then BOOM married with a dead dad. Her role isn't as important as it should be which makes her seem like an extra in the movie which is weird because she's the whole movie poster and icon of the story. Since when are extras on movie posters?

The length: The movie was too damn long and unnecessary, and it made the audience -me- aware of how long it was. I'd like to be enthralled in a movie and not have to check my phone for a brief moment. The length of this movie should be used to further explicate and build on the story, not bore people.

The ending: I'm sorry, but it was corny. It should have ended at Javert's unsatisfying death.

                         There's 2hr 38min and $12.99 I'm never getting back.

                                               A.