Les Miserables, Movie Review

"Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!"

 Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars (would be more if it wasn't for the camera work.)

Les Miserables, aka The Miserable, based on the 1980 Paris/1985 West End musical, which was based on the 1865 Victor Hugo novel, takes place in France between 1815-1832, after the French Revolution.  A new King sits on the throne.

With that said, I'm a huge fan of the musical, having first seen it in 1996 with my 8th grade class, and it was an instant love affair, being the first professional play I've ever seen.  It was glorious, and this review will be taken from that perspective: a fan of the musical finally seeing it on the silver screen.

Performances

No one can argue how brilliant Anne Hathaway is in the role of Fantine; we've been hearing about it for months.  The crime would have been if she didn't meet expectations after all that hype.  She did meet them, and her performance was full of raw emotion.  Hugh Jackman was also brilliant, and I don't think Russell Crowe deserves the bad rap he's been getting.  Sure, his falsetto could use some work along with a couple rhythmic passages, but during the deeper melodic lines his tone was really quite nice.

The ensemble was fantastic, and I don't think they're getting the credit they deserve.  We've been hearing about Anne, but what about Eddie Redmayne as Marius?  His "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was beautiful, and I love his duet with Eponine (Samantha Barks) "A Little Fall of Rain." (I was nervous the song didn't make the movie when I didn't see it as a track listing on the album.)  One of the downfalls of the 1998 Les Mis. movie was the absence of my favorite character Eponine, and to not have her here would have been a travisty.  Samantha didn't disappoint, and I loved her "On My Own." (The best song, bar none.  I'm biased towards it.)  The two children, Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche and Isabelle Allen as the young Cossette, both turned in very solid performances.

Surprisingly I was most impressed with Aaron Tvelt as Enjolras, who is one of Marius' friends.  His vocals were pure and strong.  He took a part that I usually don't pay attention to and made me notice and care for the character, albeit small.  All the singers during "Red and Black" were all quite good.

Conversion from Stage to Screen

Many aspects worked well on the big screen.  Where, on the stage, an actors performance is played big so that the whole audience can feel the emotion, the camera allows for subtle nuances to come through.  The singers voice can pull back a little to convey a line instead of project; this allowed for many wonderful moments on the screen.

What I had a hard time with was the camera work.  I was reading in Vogue how director Tom Hopper didn't know how he was going to transition a stage musical to the screen til Anne Hathaway's audition, thus the "close-up" was realized.  It works for her solo, as well as a couple of Jackman's pieces, but there were moments when I was craving sweeping wide-shots.  Some good cinematography!  Since all the singing was done live, with close-up hand-held cameras, those broader shots would have been more difficult.  And since Hopper would take the most solid performance over the most solid filmed scene, some really sloppy camera work made the final cut.  I swear I noticed the camera get bumped a couple times, especially by Jackman towards the beginning of the film.  And I believe the camera men stumbled a couple times as well.  

Overall I was quite pleased with Les Miserables.  Was it perfect?  No, but the message of the play came through.  That of redemption.  And it was nice seeing some of my most favorite musical theater pieces performed in such a grand way.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 For suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements.  Not for the young.  There are moments brought to the screen that aren't so well emphasized in the play, depicting how horrible it was to live back then, etc.  How horrible it is to live in the slums.  We take things for granted.        

Batman The Dark Knight Rises: Movie Review

“You think this is going to last. There is a storm coming Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches. Cause when it hits, your all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large, and leave so little for the rest of us.” ~ Selina AKA Cat Woman

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

The Dark Knight Rises takes place eight years after 2008's The Dark Knight.  The city is in a state of peace, thanks to the Dent act which has helped captor criminals and keep them off the street.  Author Dent is a hero and Batman, who killed Dent to save Commissioner James Gordon's son, is the villain.  Gordon of course feels terrible over this, wishing to reveal the truth about Dent and his crimes as Two Face, but for the sake of peace he's kept silent.

Bruce has spent these years as a recluse in Wayne manor, avoiding parties that are held in his home.  He's almost in ruins, thanks to investing in Miranda Tate's (Marion Cotillard) clean energy project, who's goal was to produce fusion energy, but was disbanded when Bruce realized this power core could be turned into a nuclear weapon.  It's Selina Kyle/Catwomen (Anne Hathaway) who steals right out of an unbreakable vault that forces Bruce out of hiding.  And it's the new villain Bane (Tom Hardy) who helps Bruce to don the bat mask.    

Selina is in it for herself.  She feels the riches of the wealthy are owed her, and through jewelry Cat burglaries, she has no problem helping herself to the property of others.  Along the way she's become an associate of Bane's, and helps him in his goals.  But what are his goals?  Throughout the film we have an idea, but it's not till the end that we truly find his motive.

I like Tom Hardy as an actor, but I didn't like him as Bane.  The brilliant performance of Health Ledger's Joker is a hard one to live up to.  Of course it's hard to act behind a mouth piece, but the accent he uses was hard to take: it felt cartoony.  The sound mixing of his voice was jarring and too loud.  I kept thinking of Darth Vader and wishing for James Earl Jones, though that wouldn't have quite worked.

Before coming into the film I thought I wouldn't like Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, but by the end of the movie I grew to like her in the role.  Surprisingly it was Marion Cotillard's Miranda Tate that I disliked.  Not once did I warm to her character, which is a shame.  The plot would have meant a lot more if I had connected to her.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is another new addition to the cast as John Blake, the intuitive cop who sees things as they are, and is courageous enough to stand up for what he believes in.  He was my favorite new character, and I liked his place in the movie.  Another favorite of mine was Michael Caine's Alfred who kept the story grounded.

There was a lot of talk when it was discovered that Bane would be the main villain of the movie.  A lot of discussion has been made wondering if there was a Mitt Romney connection, with one of his businesses being Bain Capital.  Of course there is a problem when you realize that, like Bruce, Mitt is in the 1%, and Bane attacks the wealthy.  In terms of choosing Bane, instead of The Riddler or Poison Ivy, I understand.  The character was created in 1993, and in Batman Comic Canon he brakes Batman's back.  The Dark Knight Rises is the end of the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy, so why not bring in a character that helps bring about Batman's end?  But there was great debate on the web if this would really be the end of Bruce's Batman.  Well, you'll have to see the movie to find out.

Then there are the political undertones.  Nolan denies that there are any, saying he was trying to tell an interesting story.  But that doesn't stop the online debate.  It started back during filming when it was discovered that Nolan wanted to film Occupiers and use shots from the Occupy Wall Street movement in the film, only to change his mind.

Even Christian Bale, who plays Batman, couldn't believe during filming how the Occupy movement had similarities in the script.  He told OnTheRedCarpet.com "There's something quite uncanny that happened during 'The Dark Knight Rises' and I think you'll see that there's a correlation in the Occupy Wall Street movement and some themes within the movie here."

The movement shown in the movie has Occupy supporters nervous.  Harrison Schulz states, ""I’m glad that themes about wealth inequality and class conflict have entered into the zeitgeist of popular culture. In this case, however, I would rather see the these themes in The Dark Knight Rises remain free of any association with the Occupy Movement ... They in no way resemble the comparatively impoverished, peace-seeking protesters who armed themselves with signs, sleeping bags, tents, and iPhones at best in their attempts to fight for social justice."

On the right Christian Toto writes, "'Rises' never mentions the 99 percent or other overt Occupy Wall Street slogans. But Nolan clearly summons the spirit of the ragtag movement with a propensity for violence. Bane's henchmen literally attack Wall Street, savagely beat the rich and promise the good people of Gotham that "tomorrow, you claim what is rightfully yours." The Catwoman's gal pal (Juno Temple) assures her at one point, when they enter a swanky abode, that "this is everyone's home" now – in perfect Communist fashion."

No matter how you see it, there is a strong French Revolutionary theme that's hard to ignore.

The movie isn't perfect, but it is a good movie, one I enjoyed, and it's my favorite of the three.

Sarah