I went to see Les Miserables last night with my friend Ash and thought it was well-acted, entertaining, not nearly as cheesy as I expected, and not even close to deserving a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars this year when you compare it to a film like The Master. I did almost cry once during it, though, so that’s something. I think I also almost cried during Looper with my friend Kim the night before, though, so maybe it’s nothing.
Anyway, here are my spoiler-free thoughts about Les Mis:
• I can’t believe there was a character named Cassette.
• Watching a preview for the movie a few days ago, Kamran pointed out that the scene with Anne Hathaway singing “I Dreamed a Dream” all close up with her shaved head looks like a reference to the 1920s silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, which was a big deal because of its extremely intimate zoomed-in look and stark background that made the actor the whole point of the thing.
Joan of Arc looks way cooler, am I right? I thought this particular Les Mis scene with its teary, snotty close-up was pretty powerful, but in general, the filmmaking seemed pretty sad and uninteresting, and I’m not surprised that Tom Hooper wasn’t nominated for Best Director at this year’s Oscars. The background of the movie was a French uprising, and yet France played absolutely no character in it; I can literally think of one bit of French architecture that was showcased. The rest of the backdrops were filmed entirely out of focus, the shallow depth of field trained solely on whichever actor happened to be singing at that point. All of the budget must have been spent on big-name actors, so there was nothing left for scenery. Anne Hathaway’s skin was never meant to be seen at that distance, godblessher.
• Sometimes the camera’s precise focus was amazing, and sometimes only Eddie Redmayne’s ear was in focus.
• Some of the singing felt raw and impassioned, and some just needed enough Auto-Tuning to make the notes even remotely correct.
• The all-sung dialogue was awkward at times, especially when there was no background music and the actors didn’t know the tune they were supposed to be singing.
• The live recording of songs didn’t work when actors were physically separated; Amanda Seyfried’s notes from the carriage seemed to physically bounce off of Eddie Redmayne’s from the center of town when they were supposedly harmonizing.
• The plot wasn’t boring, and the eight hours or whatever it lasted didn’t seem long.
• They actually showed the body hitting the water! And it thudded!
• The “Red and Black” song was my favourite of the film.
• I agree with everyone else that Eddie Redmayne has a great voice, but I liked Aaron Tveit singing as Enjolras better. And I also totally didn’t hate Russell Crowe’s vocals, though Tracey said it sounded like he thought he was in a rock opera, and Ash said it sounded like he has fat on his vocal cords.
• The little Cockney kid, Gavroche, was uh-maaaaazing. But why was there a little Cockney kid in France?
• So much poo in people’s mouths!
The poo is the really important part.
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– I cried during Anne Hathaway’s close-up snot song and at the end.
– The weird camera angles didn’t seem to have any point. Like, why is the floor at a 45 degree angle all of a sudden? I did crap like that in high school photography class for a little while. Then I realized it was stupid.
– I would call the sound of the body hitting more like a “crunch”
– I found that crunch satisfying, as Russel Crowe was the worst in this movie. The only times the movie felt long were the times we had to spend with him. He was awful – and I’m not just talking about his singing. Though it was terrible.
– I find Eddie Redmayne’s gingerface mezmerizing, but I was troubled by his chin-wobbling. My sister (the one in my family who can sing) says this is cheating.
– Did you read the Jezebel review? http://jezebel.com/5971561/heres-how-we-felt-about-every-song-in-les-mis-a-painstaking-breakdown “Russell Crowe, I don’t even know what to say to you. Really, it sounds like you just took a bite of pancakes.”
– Those teeth. TEEF!
Omg, the teeth. So bad.
I’m glad they messed up the teeth though. I hate seeing movies that are supposed to take place back in the day but yet everyone has bigole white chiclets in their mouths.
I’m all for Argo for Best Picture, but can we agree that Anne Hathaway totally deserves her nomination? She was the stand out performance for me, and she was barely in it.
I love Eddie Redmayne, so he probably could have been total crap and I still would have enjoyed watching him. But totally agree, loved Aaron Tveit. (Did you know he was on Gossip Girl? It was driving me crazy, I knew I recognized him.)
I can’t watch the poo scene at all. Ewww. Can’t watch the body thud, crack, whatever either. Ouch.
It’s Cosette, haha. And praise Jesus, Santa Claus, and Hare Krishna they picked Amanda Seyfried and not Taylor Swift. That would have been a total disaster.
And what, no love for Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter?
I was with you. COSETTE.
TSwift was up for Eponine, actually, which would have been even worse!
Oh dear god. How her name came up at all is beyond me.
They did have the Elephant of the Bastille, which was a pretty major French monument of the time period (it’s no longer there). One of the things I actually liked about the movie was the way Paris was shown only to scale with the show/plot. For example, from the stage show, and to a lesser extent, the original novel, you don’t really get a VISUAL grasp of how tiny and hopeless the uprising/barricade was. So I thought that was done pretty well.
Aaron Tveit is a pretty major Broadway singer/actor, and the rest of the students aside from Redmayne were played by West End musical theatre actors, so Red and Black definitely got the star treatment. I’m glad you liked Enjolras because he is one of THE GREATEST characters/so dreamy (in the book he runs around eschewing female suitors and declaring the Patria his mistress and there’s like two-page description of his face, I mean, amazing). I was actually a little miffed at the way they underused Tveit, because they totally gave some of Enjolras’ (sung) lines to other dudes for like no reason at all.
Your review is probably one of the best I’ve seen of this movie so far, especially by a person who went in without many expectations/prior knowledge. And I completely agree that Tom Hooper wasn’t “snubbed.”
Oh, Aaron Tveit was also on Gossip Girl. I mean, that’s primarily why I love him, obviously. Trip Vanderbilt!
And I still kind of can’t believe Eddie Redmayne went so unnoticed when they decided to inexplicably nominate this movie for all the awards. He was literally the only standout/surprise for me. I thought Jackman was mostly disappointing with a few good moments and Hathaway good but perhaps a touch overpraised.
I finally get to see it Sunday, even though I bought tickets for it 2 weeks ago.
I love me some poo filled mouths.
Can I interest you in some bread?!
I… er… ‘found’ some right over there…
:)
I’m reading Les Mis right now and Marius is described as having passionate nostrils, flared open. So I had to stop and look at my own nostrils. Then I went to work and started looking at everyone’s nostrils.
I read a review the other day that made me LOL…
Went to the movies with the wife. We saw this obscure movie I had never heard of, some French foreign film. They must have been giving away free tickets because the lines were out the door. Anyway, the movie starts, and Wolverine is singing his guts out. Then Catwoman starts crying and singing, and it’s all very moving. The only problem was, the girl next to me, who had apparently read the book or something, starts singing along. It was very distracting. So Wolverine is on the run from the Gladiator because Catwoman had a baby at Borat’s house, but now she wants Wolverine to care for her. Time skip. A bunch of kids get shot, and in the end everyone dies. Four stars.
Kandarpa and I, along with other friends, saw Les Mis on Christmas Day. Neither Kandarpa nor I had ever seen it before, and we remained happily unspoiled before seeing it.
During The Poop Scene:
Me (to myself): Welp, there is no way he’ll live now, with THAT infection that’s bound to happen.
(A few beats later, without hearing me)
Kandarpa: He’s totally going to die; he has poop in the wound!
And then we laughed and laughed and continued to chant “poop in the wound!” during a very tense scene. Hooray! Maturity!
When I got home from seeing it, I said I could have done without the river of shit. A friend was like, “Whoa, like, actual poop?” Yes, folks. A river of it. And I cried twice and was still kind of meh on the whole thing. And word to Gavroche being Cockney. Grr.
And the French nerd in me really rose up when some of the characters pronounced it “Cassette.” It’s “Cazzette,” folks. One s makes a z sound, two make an s sound. French I there. It was especially distracting when Amanda Eyeballs and Eddie Overhyped were taking through the gate and one of them said it one way and the other said it right. Christ.
Her name is Cosette, though. Just the one ‘s’. Still silly they were all using different pronunciations, though.
Aaaand I read your comment backwards, sorry! I’m the worst. But yeah, I didn’t hear any “cassette”s but I definitely believe they were in there. I probably just stopped listening.
Ok, I really want to see this, and I’m glad to know you weren’t bored because I heard it’s really long and I tend to get fidgety and restless in theatres.
From the previews, it did seem like the all-sung dialogue was awkward at times (specifically from Crowe with his booming voice)… I can see myself being immature and laughing at times.
Poo.
I still haven’t seen it! So I don’t feel like I can comment appropriately.