The film begins with a very gaunt looking Hugh Jackman in the water and shackled with chains, certainly not the same zipline-ing Hugh Jackman we all know and love. I must admit I was a bit skeptical at first: "what the hell is Hugh Jackman doing in a musical?"However, after being reminded many a time by my friend Joe that he "actually started out in musical theatre"and hearing him sing in the first few minutes of the opening sequence, I was completely convinced. Russell Crowe was a different story. With so many people completely slating his singing, including his co-star, Sacha Baron Cohen, I was expecting to see a repeat of Pierce Brosnan in 'Mamma Mia'. But I was actually pleasantly surprised. OK, so he's no Pavarotti, but come on, did we really expect 'The Gladiator' to have the voice of an angel? No. He's a good Javert and lets be honest, Russell Crowe doesn't really have to do a lot to portray a spiteful, miserable man!
So we've met Jean Valjean (Wolverine) and we've met Javert (grumpy Crowe), and after being permitted parole, Valjean goes to seek repentance and along the way meets Fantine, the gorgeous Anne Hathaway. Fantine begins the movie all long haired and innocent and ends it (15 minutes after starting it), short haired, desperate and as a dying prostitute. But in between this short performance, she does an earth-shattering rendition of arguably everyone's favourite Susan Boyle song (and Lord knows there aren't many), 'I Dreamed a Dream'. The tears, snotty nose and disgustingly short hair makes Anne Hathaway's short performance in Les Mis undeniably Oscar worthy, and I would have been happy to leave the cinema then and there. But no. I stayed.
And I'm glad I did, because not only did I get to listen to the young Cosette sing my favourite song of the film 'Castle on a Cloud' (I do a fantastic rendition may I say), but I was also introduced to the two stand-out performances of the film, courtesy of the wonderfully eccentric Helena Bonham Carter and the always brilliant Sacha Baron Cohen. The pair play inn keepers, the Thénardiers, who pride themselves on their ability to get anyone drunk and steal whatever they want from right in front of you, whilst singing a pretty good song at the same time. The couple bring some much needed humour to the otherwise serious and stern film. And just when you think the film is getting a bit too serious, these two pop up to lighten the mood. Along with the Thénardiers comes their daughter, Éponine, who grows up to be a morally conscious young woman, the complete opposite to her parents. Éponine is played by newcomer Samantha Barks who was a former 'Nancy' on one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'lets-find-the-next-big-west-end-star-and-make-sure-we-never-hear-from-them-again' shows. Barks, however, has full right to stick her middle finger up at all of those other Nancy's after singing a stunning version of 'On My Own' in an Oscar nominated film and dying a tear jerking death.
Unfortunately with the good comes the bad, and although Les Mis is generally phenomenal, parts of the movie were disappointing. Firstly Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne. Marius (Redmayne) on his own was fine. In fact I quite liked him. But add a young Cosette (Seyfried) into the mix and the pair just become unbearably annoying. "I love you so much Cosette even though I only met you today""I love you too Marius even though I only found out what your name was 5 seconds ago" Blah. Blah. Blah. SHUT UP! So irritating. Although I must put this down to the characters rather than the actors. I can't, however, blame Amanda Seyfried's singing on the character. A mix between a Disney princess and a bird singing to a Disney princess, it was like some sort of weird child warbling. Strange. The revolution scene didn't quite do it for me either I'm afraid. It was as if the whole film had built up to this massive crescendo and when it came about it was like. Oh. Really? Is that it? OK then... However the whole cast singing "Do You Hear the People Sing?", a favourite of my Les Mis obsessed friend, Joe, at the end of the film quickly made up for this.
So I went into the film excited and knowing that I'd write a post on it, however about 90 minutes into the 2 hour and 37 minute film, I did kind of forget what had already happened. I must admit there were also points when I thought "OK. It's going to finish soon" and then Hugh Jackman started getting passionate about something again. I also can't understand why people find this such a tear jerker. Fair enough, I welled up a bit when Éponine and Gavroche died, but I don't think it warranted the tears that I saw a girl crying as I walked out of the cinema. Watch the first 10 minutes of 'Up' love. That'll make you bawl your eyes out! This did not, however, take away from the pure brilliance of the film. 100% oscar worthy. Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway deserve every award under the sun for their performances and I would advise all film lovers to go and watch this visual masterpiece. Be warned though. Buy a large popcorn because you will be in it for the long run!
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