by ALISON LEVIER Section Editor
Based on the musical, which is based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Misérables is the story of determination, love, and hope during the French Revolution.
Without going too far into detail about the plot (it is a three hour long movie), the movie follows the life of an ex-convict, Jean Valjean, who breaks his parole to create a better life for himself.
Just a forewarning, this movie is a musical. Not the type of musical where it sporadically breaks into song, but the type of musical that has about 20 lines of dialogue in the entire movie. Having said that, if you do not like musicals, you probably will not be able to fully appreciate the film.
As a whole, the movie is stunning. The visual effects and overall quality of the film are off the charts. The actors did not pre-record their singing parts, so all the singing is done live, giving the movie a raw, very personal feel, exactly like the musical, but maybe even better because the use of close-up camera angles really gives the viewer a look into the emotion of the characters, which is something that theatre obviously cannot give (close-up camera angles, not emotional depth).
This movie is, to say the least, magical. The performances from most of the actors (we will get into that in a bit) were just phenomenal. “Les Mis” is full of the type of heart-wrenching movie magic you would hope to see maybe once in a movie.
There is honestly nothing better than seeing an actor or actress pour their hearts and souls into a character, and Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman did just that.
Jackman, taking on the role of the paranoid, distressed, yet caring Valjean, literally becomes the character. His performance is mesmerizing, and his voice is outstanding. There really are not enough positive words to say about his performance without sounding redundant. Jackman was the perfect Valjean, no doubt.
“Hugh Jackman. That guy can sing,” said sophomore Anne Ballman.
Hathaway, on the other hand, takes on the role of Fantine, the desperate single mother who will do anything (literally anything) to help her daughter Cosette survive. Hathaway, although only in about 20 minutes of the film, was one of the best performances from any actress in a movie ever. When she sang “I Dreamed a Dream”, you could feel in your gut her heartbreak.
She did not play Fantine, she was Fantine. She was heartbreaking, sad and lonely, and it was almost as if she was giving a piece of the character’s heartbreak to the audience, because during that number, the entire movie theatre was crying, mesmerized by her utterly stunning performance. If she does not win the Oscar, it was rigged.
“Anne Hathaway is one of the best talents in Hollywood, and she was absolute perfection in this role,” said sophomore Kirsten Pasewaldt.
Another stand-out performance was from Samantha Barks as Éponine. Having played the part on the West End for a while, there was no doubt she had the voice for the role.
In addition to a great voice, she gave a flawless emotional performance for Éponine. She obviously really knows how to play the part, because she was phenomenal, and seeing her amazing performance just made me, as a viewer and resident theatre-geek, wonder why they did not cast more stage actors.
Now, having raved enough about this movie, there were obviously some dull points. The two biggest ones were Amanda Seyfried and Russel Crowe. They were pretty awful. Both the actors played their characters very one-level, without really going into the depth that they needed to go to like their fellow actors on screen. In addition to the flat acting, neither of them can sing, which just made for an agonizing lull in the movie.
Overall, I would say this movie is an absolute must-see. There is no doubt that it will get nominated for multiple Oscars, and it is one of the best movie-musicals of all time.