Les Miserables is one of those films that has a huge anticipation from people all over the world. It is one of the most successful and celebrated theater musicals adapted from Victor Hugo's work. In fact, for Filipinos, this movie is more memorable as a famous Filipino singer was part of the cast in earlier versions.
Since my aunt gave me a free movie ticket for my birthday, I decided to use it on this film since I have good hopes that I will enjoy the movie despite not knowing a lot about the movie's storyline aside from the fact that it is set in the past and mostly concerned about politics.
Right from the start, the tone of the film can be told as the wonderful visual imagery colored the screens and the music started right away with a production number starred by Hugh Jackman, the movie's leading actor. I know that the movie was a musical but I did not expect that the entire film would be sung in songs. The spoken dialogues would probably amount to less than 10 minutes in total, and that is saying a lot since the movie is almost 3 hours long! But there's no need to fret, despite of that, the scenes are very entertaining and keeps the storyline flow smoothly. Sure there are scenes where I think would be better off as spoken dialogues but they pulled it off just as well as singing them. I can assume that the songs which are already a part of it for a long time are written specifically for this musical.
It is no surprise that this movie has already garnered awards and nominations. The acting and the musical productions were superb. Hugh Jackman showed his vulnerable side of him as opposed to the tough guy we always see from him. Russell Crow did fairly well despite some criticisms about his singing ability. Anne Hathaway, who is probably the one who has attracted the most attention for her part, was able to own the scenes that she is a part of. Though some may be surprised that she only appears in the movie for around 20 minutes only. But that does not stop her from delivering a gut-wrenching performance. Her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream alone is praise-worthy. Amanda Seyfried was very appropriate for her role as an innocent and lovely woman although she is overshadowed by the entire cast and she is probably the only one of the main cast who doesn't have a memorable solo musical performance. Samantha Barks did great too as well as the other male stars, namely, Eddie Redmayne and Aaron Tveit. Helena Bonham Carter did spectacular as usual and I didn't expect Sacha Baron Cohen to have such a splendid performance.
I downloaded the soundtrack right away when I got home. My only disappointment in the film was that the transition happened too quick and there's a few things that weren't explained properly. I could only wish that they showed more beef to the storylines such as Cosette's childhood or Cosette-Eponine-Marius love triangle. I do understand that the time limit is a problem but maybe they would appear in the deleted scenes sometime.
This movie is the first movie I watched in theaters this year and this did not disappoint.
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