'LES MISERABLES'

'LES MISERABLES' (PG-13) (2 STARS)

Written by William Nicholson
Directed by Tom Hooper
Actors: Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter.

With the latest Hobbit movie and now the screen adaptation of "Les Miserables" I realize if you are not a fan of the original material you might not like a screen adaptation of it. I am not a fan of the muscial "Les Miserables", let me get that out of the way first. I saw it on stage when I was a kid and was bored and now after seeing this screen adaptation my boredom has not gone away. Since I hadn't seen the play in a number of years I was still holding a sliver of hope that director Tom Hooper would enliven the material for the screen. I did find the first half hour promising and really good but after that half hour the movie turned sour for me.

The movie starts out beautifully (especially on a giant screen at Evanston Century 12 theater) with an astonishing opening. The opening has a huge ship being pulled by a couple of lines of slaves including I guess our hero Jean Valjean. It is a breathtaking shot and then we hear our first musical moment including Russell Crowe as Javert surprising me with a nice singing voice. The movie is shot differently from other musicals in that the actors actually sing on set as opposed to being dubbed in later. The results sounded really great to me, kind of reminded me of the great rock opera "Tommy" and that awesome, weird muscial adaptation by Ken Russell.

I also love the performance by Anne Hathaway as Fantine, the only character here I find interesting. Hathaway has a scene stealing, show stopping muscial number and her singing is controlled, heartbreaking and beautiful. She will deserve her predicted Best Supporting Actress win at the Oscars. So far so good and Vince here was actually thinking Tom Hooper and Anne Hathaway were going to make this much better than the stage muscial interpretation. Though suddenly my attention started to wander off and the story really kicks in and then really started to bore me. The major problem here to me is that Fantine leaves our promising muscial and the movie will never recover from it. I did not find any other character interesting at all and I attribute that to the weak writing that has to go back to the stage version.

These characters are shallowly written and besides singing they do nothing to enhance a depressing, dull story. The movie then starts to escape Tom Hooper's hands and starts to get monotonous. I am sorry but this has to be one of the most depressing musicals I have ever seen. Now someone who loves this will tell me that there have been so many musicals before that dealt with dark material. I would agree but those musicals are "Hair" and "Fiddler on the Roof" and they had characters and a story I cared about and there was a personality to the story and musical numbers. Fantine is the only character I loved and found touching and interesting. There are also the two worst characters in any musical I have seen who bring the movie to a halt played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. I also think that a musical that is surrounded by a dull subject like the French Revolution is in trouble from the beginning.

The movie is beautifully photographed but there is no control on the story after an hour beacause it is so dull, pretentious, sloppy and dull as dirt. I always have a rule that a movie can look really beautiful but if you don't have a good story or characters you are doomed. I also think that Hugh Jackman is good but I think any Broadway actor could have overplayed this character like Jackman does. Also Russell Crowe surprised me with his singing but it just seems like he is not there after a while what with his weakly written character. Also Cosette should carry the torch of fascination from Fantine when she leaves the story but the grown up Cosette is a simpleton dullard sorrounded by a weak love interest for her.

"Les Miserables" might satisfy the stage musical's fans but to me it just din't stir any emotions in me and I sat there mostly stone faced except during Hathaway's heartbreaking number. This is not really fun, entertaining stuff I am afraid and I love musicals more than most genre of films and I just felt somber and bored throughout. Musicals are supposed to touch us and give us an experience that takes away from our everyday problems. After "Les Miserables" I just wanted to poke my eyes out.

P.S. For better musicals that dealt with dark material but also changed my life and made me feel something try "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Hair" especially if you have never seen them! Skip "Les Miserables".