Director: Tom Hooper
It's been a long time since I last wrote an article, but I guess was worth waiting if the film I'm going to talk about is as "big" as Les Miz. First of all, from the moment I found out that there is going to be a film partly based on the novel by Victor Hugo and on the 1980s musical, I knew that there is no chance I'm going to see it anywhere else but on the big screen. Even though I had to wait additional 1,5 months until Les Miserables arrived to my country, it did pay off. Splendid clothing, beautiful music, amazing dramatics and emotions - who doesn't love that, but everything by turns.
I've never been keen on musicals because I preferred talking to singing. However, I've always loved Grease (1978) and, though singing was an integral part here as well, I somehow could handle that because the main characters spoke quite a lot at the same time. This time it was different. If I remember correctly, the cases of speaking can be counted on the fingers of one hand, yet I didn't need more. Everything was clear and even more emotional than it could be if the characters spoke more than sung. Even later I couldn't stop listening to some of the songs. They definitely live their own lives now, without any motion behind. So it's 1:0 for Tom because Hugo's novel filmed as any typical historical film wouldn't be such a success. That would be too boring and would last for more than 3 hours. It is good as it is.
Talking about the plot, well...I won't retell it, as I've already done it in my review of the novel of the same name (read it here). I may just refer to the limitations. I know that it's quite difficult to stuff 2 bulky books into 1 film (if it's not more than 2.5 hours long) and maybe therefore Tom decided to base more on the musical, but... as I've read the novel before and I know how everything really happened, I had an impression that some parts of the plot, for instance, the time when Marius sees Cosette for the first time, were not developed enough; some were not mentioned at all (Marius's father). In the book it was explained in 10, 20, 30 pages but here everything happened too quickly like it was too evident to go into details. Mainly the songs and emotions were those which told the story without any further explanation. And honestly, I didn't know before that Hugh Jackman and Eddie Redmayne are such good singers and Anne... that she will get an Oscar, I kinda knew before.
Overall, I must say that I enjoyed Les Miz and I wasn't disappointed at no time. Though at first it was unusual that they just sang and sang and sang, but in no time you kinda get used to it and just wait when the next song will begin. I definitely recommend you watching this film.It's not just about love but more about reaching your goals. And you know what? Time change people and everyone deserves the second chance. Life is too short to concentrate on the bad things.
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