Les Miserables
I’ve always had a strict anti-musical stance. I’ve often said that to see people break into song mid step and begin to extoll the virtues of a healthy bowel movement is laughable at best. I’ve said that you cannot create a sense of drama or emotion when you have to service lyrical verse to tell story. Well, folks, that is because I was a guy and I was told or inferred somewhere that in being a guy, musicals were for the less manly. I was wrong and I am man enough to say that. I’ve been wrong for a while and I shouldn’t be ashamed to admit it. I was in a movie theater tonight with 5 older women, 1 teenage girl and two guys dragged there by their wives/girlfriends. There is probably a few thousand pocket handies being given by the wives and girlfriends of some weepy guys after they’ve seen Les Miserables. It is that powerful a movie and a great show.
Les Miserables is the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man arrested for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s son and having served 20 years as a prisoner under the rule of the cruel Javert, he is freed but his name will be forever disgraced by the small crime he committed. Javert tells him that he will suffer on parole for the rest of his life and when the day comes that he breaks the law again, Javert will bring him in and lock him away for life. Valjean does suffer as he tossed from house to house until he is taken in by the Bishop of Digne. Given food, wine and a place to sleep, Valjean is desperate and steals all the silver from the priest and is captured by the police who bring the silver back to the church. Yet the Bishop gives Valjean a new life by telling the police that he gave Valjean the silver. He changes his ways, his name and skips out on his parole to start a new life.
He does and rises to a place of power in the small town and provides work for the poor and attempts to give up his life of hate. There Valjean meets Fantine (Anne Hathaway) who was fired by Valjean’s foreman and forced to whoore (pronounced who-ore) herself on the street to the point of near death. Fantine has a daughter whom she left in the care of an innkeeper and his wife. She’s been sending money back to them to pay for Cosette’s upkeep. That the two criminals treat Cosette like dirt and make her work for the scraps they give her Fantine is probably quite aware yet powerless to help.
This performance by Anne Hathaway is one of the most powerful of the movie. Though she enters and leaves after maybe 20 minutes of the 2 1/2 hour movie, her character and her love and dreams of a better life resonate throughout the film. As they move into Fantine’s bed (which is probably quite intentionally the size of a coffin) and Hathaway sings the powerful song “I dreamed a dream” you see 100 emotions of the character she plays. She is quite literally singing the life out of herself, she no longer wants to be a part of the world. It is perhaps the most powerful moment of the movie. I am reminded of a scene in the movie Sleepers in which their is no dialogue but you hear the story through the face of Robert Deniro’s Father Bobby.
As the movie moves forward in time by leaps of 8 years, Valjean and Javert age in a constant struggle. Javert wants to bring Valjean to justice for skipping out on his parole and Valjean wants to raise Fantine’s orphaned daughter Cosette. There is perhaps 5 lines of actual dialogue throughout the entire movie, the rest is sung by Jackman, the surprising well voiced Russell Crowe. I was struck most by Samantha Barks in the role of Eponine, the daughter of the inn keeper and his wife whose hard life has been tempered by her affection for Marius, a young revolutionary who upon seeing Cosette in the street is stuck by what the Godfather called the thunderbolt. I understood her character and the struggle to love someone so much and yet never be able to tell them. That pain of every moment you see them with someone else or wanting someone else is like a dagger in your gut. Samantha Barks is a newcomer but really steals the latter half of the movie.
My only issue was with the character of Cosette (played as a child by Isabelle Allen and as an adult by Amanda Seyfried) who seems so oblivious to the world around her. Perhaps that was the intention. That Valjean has kept the harsh world away from her so she truly does not see the pain and anguish all around her.
I loved this movie, it stirred in me feelings of joy, sadness, depression and longing. I am man enough to admit that I teared up at a few moments and that at 2 1/2 hours the movie barely felt that long. That is the sing of a good movie. When you can sit on watching for 2+ hours and still find yourself not wanting it to end. When I first read Stephen King’s It, I remember reaching the last 100 pages of the 1000 page book and not wanting to finish because it meant my time with my friends was coming to a close. The same could be said about this movie. It brought me down, filled me with joy, and ended with a smile on my face. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the movie was how the music all flowed into one another so each song could be mixed together and sung with triumph at the end.
This is one of those movies that I not only recommend but implore those who love each other to see together. Be a man and see this film that so perfectly captures raw emotions and gives you license to love, dream and hope. I don’t mean to gush like a 14 year old girl but truly this movie is great and surprising to me, the cynical voice of the chronically depressed. This movie stuck with me. Sure it has only been two hours since I left the theater but it is still stuck. Anne Hathaway’s performance, Samantha Barks singing “On My Own” with such pain and sadness. This movie is worth the praise it is getting and I get it now. I can go into Oscar season knowing that I saw one of the best movies of 2012. I love Silver Linings Playbook but Les Miserables is just as good.
Mr. Unhappy sez: Les Miserables is one of the best movies of 2012. Guys if you want to see a good movie and score some brownie points with the wife/girlfriend, I’d see this one.
The Ever Rare Golden Unhappy Award for a single film
Anne Hathaway - The performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” is perhaps the most emotional scene in a movie I’ve seen in years.
Samantha Barks - Her performance “On My Own” is definitely the most emotional thing I’ve seen in years. It haunts me.
No comments:
Post a Comment