Les Miserables: the movie

[cahn]

I FINALLY SAW THE MOVIE YOU GUYS IT WAS AWESOME

I was expecting to think it was overwrought and enjoy it principally for its potential for mockery (and, mind you, there was some of that) but... but... it had two things going for it. One is that the people who made the movie clearly, clearly, loved the musical and the book, and for that I adore them SO MUCH. The other thing that it had going for it was that despite all the cynicism and judgmentalness and analytic distance I've built up since I saw Les Mis for the first time, as soon as the first orchestral notes boomed in I was grinning like a maniac, a large part of me instantly reverted RIGHT BACK to twelve-year-old OMG I AM IN LOVE. So, um. Loved the movie!

I do think, mind you, there are certain things one needs to know if one desperately loves the musical, as I do:

-Russell Crowe just. JUST. He's basically the complete polar opposite of Terrence Mann? And of book!Javert. Crowe's Javert is stolid and duty-bound, and so is his singing (Russell Crowe cannot sing or voice-act at all, but I guess at least he got everything on pitch), but he's missing the strict passion for duty, the harsh overwhelming probity, that makes Javert himself. Also, WHAT WAS UP with Crowe putting a flower on dead Gavroche, Javert would never do that, Valjean saving him or not, in a million years. Also, what the heck swordfight during Confrontation, did we suddenly fall into a Dumas novel?

(I knew Crowe couldn't sing going in, and I'm glad I did, because I love Javert so fiercely that this might have ruined the movie for me had I not been able to prepare myself. I didn't, however, know about the Gavroche thing, which occasioned a bunch of arm-flailing on my part. And I knew about the swordfight but I still flailed about!)

-It really got me off-balance sometimes when they changed the words. Like at the beginning, "You have your yellow ticket of leave, you are a thief/ I stole a loaf of bread" becomes, as far as I could tell, somemthing like "You have your yellow ticket of leave and whenever you go to a town you have to show it to the authorities and..." bwuh? I mean... I see why they did it, but it the fact there was NO METER was a little distracting. Also they never explained, AGAIN, like the musical, why he tore up his passport. (I knew that going in, and I was glad.) It was one thing they didn't change in a movie where they actually tried to change a lot of small things that didn't make sense about the musical, which I really appreciated in general! (See also later discussion of the brand!)

It was actually awfully cool to watch it after reading the book.

-I was totally stoked for Colm Wilkinson playing the Bishop, although I was very distracted by a) he is way shorter than Jackman, and b) his voice has gotten kind of quavery. Still it was really cool! Also I loved the look we got from Baptistine as Jackman is slurping up his meal. MOVIE, THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME.

-Okay, I did my whole rant about Russell Crowe and what I thought was severe assassination of Javert's character in general, but I really really liked that they put in his trying to resign.

-In general I liked a lot of the interpolated lines, most of which seem to elucidate things about the book -- my other favorite was that they put in a couple of lines about how Valjean really REALLY hates that Marius is going to take Cosette away from him, though I have to say I laughed silently when he was then all "Oh hey, I have to meet him!" as if he's saying they should play some golf together or something. I have no idea how that line came off to someone who hasn't read the book.

-I was glad that they took out all reference to "the brand upon his skin" for Champmathieu, because this never made any sense at all to me in the musical -- if he has the brand, then he's a convict, yeah? And then Valjean's sacrifice for him basically does no good whatsoever!

-The new song "Suddenly" did not fit the musical music at ALL, it was really WEIRD and pop-like, but still I really liked this nod to Valjean and how his life completely changes because Cosette is in it. Also, Hugh Jackman TOTALLY ROCKS. Just in general.

-Please tell me that there is going to be an Extended Version DVD that is, like, 4 hours long. There were several bits they cut ("Don't judge a girl on how she looks/I know a lot of things, I do") that to my ear made other parts not make nearly as much sense ("You see, I told you so/There're lots of things I know")

-OMG Marius gets to be actually likeable! I'd forgotten how different Musical!Marius is from Book!Marius -- it's clear that he's buddies with Eponine, he hangs out with her and knows things about her life; he actually has friends! He actually considers all the ABC guys his friends! Awwwww! Even though I have a whole theory about jerk!Marius in the book, and to me it was clearly a thought-out authorial choice by Hugo, I have to say that I enjoyed this Marius way, WAY more. (But he still gets to threaten to blow up the barricade! LOVE!)

I also loved Eddie Redmayne more than Michael Ball, because he retains the awkwardness from the book and makes it loveable, without descending into the ANGSTY THROBBINESS of Ball (which, uh, also canon! so cannot fault Ball), and that's just fine with me! Though if you had told me I would come out saying that, I wouldn't have believed you :)

-I... couldn't tell any of the students apart. Even Grantaire, despite his death scene (WHICH SO MUCH LOVE) seemed to have rather less personality than in the musical.

-Okay, question for all of you who have watched the movie: does Valjean shoot the sniper in the "First Attack" scene? Because I thought he just pointed out the sniper and someone else shot him (I remember there being a closeup of a gun, but it not being entirely clear who was firing it). But J swore up and down that Valjean actually shot him.

When I thought Valjean didn't shoot him (and it's certainly true that Jackman doesn't shoot anyone during the actual battle, which is a change from the musical, where he's aiming and firing like everyone else, I think?) I was really happy. This has been the one thing that has always bugged me about the musical more than anything -- lthough I understand doing the book mattress-saving thing wouldn't really work in a musical, it's totally OOC for Valjean to go around killing soldiers. The book even points this out in great detail, with various of the Amis getting annoyed that Valjean never, actually, shoots anyone.

-So, I adore Hugh Jackman like anything, but I have to admit his "Bring Me Home" was, um, not all that...

-Speaking of Marius being actually nice and likeable, I have to say that I loooooooved that they changed the book in that the way they filmed it and the dialogue they added absolved Marius of almost all responsibility for Valjean's death. I mean, again, I think Hugo did it for a reason, but I LOVE THIS MARIUS AND I LOVE THAT I AM ABLE TO LOVE THIS MARIUS, OKAY?

-Hugh Jackman BROKE MY HEART at the end. There was an almost audible cracking of my heart into two pieces when he did his trio part in the "Heart Full of Love" reprise (which somehow, despite having the musical practically memorized, surprised me anyway) -- because they totally set it up with the lines they added before about how Marius is going to take Cosette away and also with "Suddenly" even if as a song it's not brilliant, and because I had read the book beforehand and cried buckets during this part in the book -- and the rest of the movie finished the job. And Fantine at the end was gorgeous and awesome. And THE BISHOP. THE BISHOP. I knew this going in, that he was going to be present at the end (which AAAAAAAH) and I wish I hadn't, but it was still marvelous. (also: AAAAAAAAAAH Hugh Jackman's face, that dawning look of yearning amazed hope as the Bishop holds out his hand to him)

ETA because I have way too much to say about this movie:
-One Day More, while I still loved it like whoa OBVIOUSLY, didn't work so well. J and I thought it was because of two things: a) Crowe doesn't have the voice to carry the bass underlying line of "One day more to revolution..." and b) Jackman couldn't sustain the "One day moooooore" impossibly long like it is on the recording.

-Eponine really really distracted me because her face was way too clean!

-I really, really loved that Javert showed up while Fantine is talking about her problems and M. le Maire gets all distracted, which is awesome because it explains why he doesn't help her out which is COMPLETELY INEXPLICABLE in the musical as it stands!

-one more thing: I absolutely ABSOLUTELY loved that they put in the bit from the book where he gets the rope from the emergency kit and rappels into the convent with Cosette (and then Fauchelevent's all "Hey remember me?" and Valjean's all "Bwa?") but it clearly was a little bit weird for people who hadn't, like, JUST READ the book (J was confused: "Where did he get the rope from?")

ETA2: I was reminded that I should also say that while Hugh Jackman made my heart break in the "Heart Full of Love" reprise, at almost the same time I burst out laughing when, in the same song, M. Gillenormand started singing totally randomly, and I was totally all "who the HECK is this dude?" (I mean, I knew who he was! And I'm totally thrilled they included him! But he had had exactly one speaking line in the movie up to that point, and then he just kind of appeared and started singing out of nowhere!


I could talk about this movie forever, but in conclusion: LOVE.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I haven't seen the film yet, and really I'm okay with reading everyone's spoilery posts, since I want to rent it and watch it in short snarky pieces. ahem.

It seems as though they cast Crowe because he looks as though he could look like Valjean. Which. Well, not enough.

"Heart Full of Love" sounds great. I don't think I've seen others comment upon it; good to know that that is there.

[cahn]

ahahahaha. Yes, I think you are much better at retaining your analytical distance than I am (although this surprised me! I usually do very poorly with movie adaptations), and there is much to mock and laugh at (*cough*Crowe), so I can very much imagine you doing better with short snarky pieces. Though I would love to know what you think, and would also enjoy snarking about the snarky bits :)

I do have to say that I came out realizing for the first time why people ship Valjean/Javert, which I never have and not gonna start now, but Jackman/Crowe do seem to have a sort of chemistry together, so I guess I see why they cast him? I JUST DISAGREE. STRENUOUSLY. :) Also other people seem to like his acting and I seem to be in a minority, at least of people I know.

My feelings on the "Heart Full of Love" reprise (the original "Heart" is fine but, you know, as sappy as you'd expect) are highly influenced by just having read all the sections in the book where Valjean wrestles with giving away Cosette and feeling really strongly about them, and also feeling like they filmed that bit exactly the way I imagine it in my head, so YMMV?

But also be warned -- I forgot to say this in the post and will add it -- that they turned the trio into a quartet, adding M. Gillenormand, and I started laughing because where the HECK did this guy come from? (He has exactly one appearance and one spoken line in the movie up to this point, so it's incredibly weird when he just appears and starts horning in on this moving trio.) I mean, I love Gillenormand, he just came out of nowhere!

[zopyrus]

When my sister and I went to see it, we both died laughing at the new lyrics. I mean, I understand why they wanted to cut/conflate! I do! But it's like they didn't even tell the script editor that the additions were going to be sung...

Like you, I was prepared for Javert's lack of singing ability, and I'm very, very glad. Perhaps because this rendered him SO DIFFERENT to what I remembered from the actual show/book, I didn't mind his little moment with dead Gavroche. (Then again, pretty much anything with dead Gavroche was probably going to make me teary.)

[cahn]

AHAHAHAHA I am glad I am not the only one flailing about madly wondering where they got these new lyrics from! I think almost all of them I liked the idea of, they almost always explained something or tried to draw in something from the book that hadn't been there before. But yes, EXACTLY, it's like they didn't tell the scriptwriter that it was going to be sung!

I think deciding movie!Javert is completely different from show!Javert or book!Javert is a perfectly appropriate reaction! And would have let me enjoy the movie more :) (I can totally see it rationally, movie!Javert as a more human character! Just, just, my twelve-year-old self DOES NOT LIKE.)

[ase]

Would you recommend the movie to someone who's listened to the soundtrack, but hasn't read the book? I want in on the Les Miz love, but I'm not sure about committing to 1,500 pages, in translation. (Yet.)

[cahn]

Yes! It is true that there will be more places where you will be all "gosh, that is a weird change, why did they do it that way?" and "why does Gavroche live in an elephant?" (not a spoiler, there's no reason besides that it happens to be a sheltered place, he just does) but people who do not know the book still seem to like it!

Honestly? For the first time through the book, I'd recommend an abridged version. I NEVER say this about books, but I do about Les Mis... there are a lot of digressions.

[ase]

Great, tickets purchased. Shall report back tonight.

(Gavroche lives in an elephant? Moulin Rouge used that elephant too! Or Paris has multiple giant hollow elephants suitable for habitation. It's Paris, it's possible.)

[cahn]

It's probably the same elephant? :)

Will be interested to see what you think! (Also, if you can figure out if Valjean shoots the sniper (very shortly after he enters the barricade), that would make my day!)

[ase]

I'm pretty sure Valjean missed the sniper. He sees the sniper and shoots; there's a shot of the sniper; the movie cuts back to some of the revolutionaries shooting; the sniper falls over (presumably) dead.

Now I'm going to sob into my update page. It's Les Miz, everyone dies, I have no shame in crying over dead fictional characters (much).

[cahn]

DAMMIT. I'd hoped he didn't shoot at all. Well, I'm going to assume that he missed on purpose, or that the moviemakers decided he missed on purpose. He's a convict, he must have perfect aim! (Book joke. Hugo would say every couple hundred pages or so that OF COURSE Valjean knows how to [insert complicated random skill set or random plot point like sneaking out of a convent IN A COFFIN] because he was a convict!)

NO SHAME. I was bawling like crazy myself because SO SAD, also see heart breaking into little tiny pieces. So I assume that means you liked it? :)

[ase]

Yes, obviously Valjean has all these random skills because he was a convict, not because he's good at thinking on his feet or something. Cough. (I am tempted to mention Slumdog Millionaire, because the entire premise is that an uneducated young man is going to win an Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire because his life just happened to hand him the knowledge to answer every. Single. Question. It's karma or something. And also includes a dramatic suicide-by-gunfight, huh.)

For a movie about a guy who was in jail for 19 years, Valjean's actual crimes are... petty theft and tearing up his parole. Okay, he stole the silver, but first, that was after a lot of rejection by polite society, and second, the Bishop retroactively gave it to him. In another 50 years, someone's going to revive Les Miz in an urban-core '80s context.

I have mixed feelings about the execution - hi Russell Crowe, we meet again, and once more it's the 19th century - but I totally approve of people spontaneously bursting into song.

[cahn]

Well -- right! I think that's part of the point, that the punishment is all out of proportion to the crime. (I can't recall whether they mentioned this in the movie, but he was given "Five years, for what you did/The rest because you tried to run" (not that I have this memorized or anything? OH BRAIN) But yeah, breaking parole was a big deal. (In the book, he also takes some money from a little kid, right after the bishop scene, and that being a repeat offender, we're told, negates any leniency he might rightfully expect for his becoming an upstanding citizen.)

Russell Crowe, at last, we see each other plain! ...or something. Yeah, I have FEELINGS, negative ones, about Crowe, but other than that I was pretty happy with the execution :)

[ase]

I think that's part of the point, that the punishment is all out of proportion to the crime

Yes, I think Valjean as one of several examples of the social injustice Hugo railed against got lost in late-night rambling.

Every now and then I forget how awesome musicals are, and then I have this fantastic rediscovery that good music is still entertaining.

[cahn]

Yeah, I think I've gotten all cynical, but apparently all you have to do is Add Music and I am so there!

[ase]

Oh, BTW, I think it's a different elephant! MR takes place around 1899, mostly in the 18th arrondissement; Les Miz is mostly the 6th and 7th arrondissements, yes? So that is one question put to rest.

[cahn]

Ahhhh, I'm hopeless with geography! Those Parisians and their elephants! :)

[skygiants]

Hee, I actually could not look away from Grantaire during every scene he was in -- his trollfaces were so beautiful! And then I grew fonder of the actor when it turns out that he is passionately fond of the book and spends all his time tweeting about Grantaire's love of Enjolras.

[cahn]

I did crack up during his lines in "Red and Black," that was marvelous. And yeah, I seem to be in the minority with not finding Grantaire that distinctive; I blame the CSR which has a Grantaire with a very distinctive voice! :) And oh, wow, that sounds really awesome about the actor, I shall have to go look him up. (In general it sounds like all the people involved in making this movie are as passionately in love with it as I am, which makes me SO HAPPY I can't even tell you! I would hate for it to have been made by people who didn't care... of course, I don't think it would have ended up nearly as awesome as it is if that had been the case.)

Also, I wanted to say to you in particular: THEY PUT IN THE ROPE RAPPELLING INTO THE CONVENT! (Okay, I know I said it in the post. But still! also, GO SOCIALLY AWKWARD CONVICTS-KNOW-EVERYTHING St. Valjean!) And also, love movie!Marius SO MUCH MORE but think musical/movie!Eponine is not nearly as cool (as their book counterparts)!

...I just can't get over this movie, sorry :)

[antisoppist]

I have just got back from seeing it with my eleven-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I will post a review at some point but quick thoughts for now:

I thought Valjean did shoot the sniper
Daughter laughed at the point where Valjean was cross that Marius would take Cosette away.
I am all about Javert and was worried by the prospect of Russell Crowe but he was much better than I was expecting.
I also loved it that the reason Valjean doesn't help Fantine is that Javert has just turned up, because that makes sense.
I thought Crowe put his own medal on dead Gavroche, in a gesture of recognising his duty/loyalty/dedication to his cause. I was moved by that but afterwards I would like to know what Javert's medal was awarded to him *for*.

[cahn]

ah, darn it! ase says he fired and missed, which sounds plausible and is maybe a happy medium between the book and the musical...

hee, I did think Valjean being cross about Marius might be funny to someone who didn't know the book, even without the "We should hang out [in the barricades] sometime!" line, although I do think it's necessary to set up just why it's such a big deal to him...

Russell Crowe was better than I expected, but it was definitely good that I'd been warned about him ahead of time :) Yeah, I realize that it would be better to just think of Crowe!Javert as a slightly different, more human person, I just couldn't do it :)

[carmarthen]

Crowe's Javert is stolid and duty-bound, and so is his singing (Russell Crowe cannot sing or voice-act at all, but I guess at least he got everything on pitch), but he's missing the strict passion for duty, the harsh overwhelming probity, that makes Javert himself.

THIS. Although in general I see musical!Javert as less, um, passionate about his job and more duty-bound. Just not in a woobie way like Crowe.

Plotwise, I liked a lot of the narrative changes, but man, the meter and lyrics in a lot of those scenes were awful.

I shall watch for Valjean actually shooting the sniper/not shooting!

[cahn]

Yeah, fair enough! Although musical!Javert is still passionate about duty :) And not woobie, darn it!

And yes, I don't know if I made it clear, I really really liked the narrative changes plotwise and bringing it more into tune with book canon! It's just as if no one paid any attention to meter or rhyme while writing most of them, which I find very odd.

I will be so glad to get a definitive answer on the sniper! The vague consensus seems to be that Valjean does fire but misses, which isn't as good as his not firing at all, but I do like it much better than him shooting the sniper (as I'm prtty sure he does in the musical).

[carmarthen]

Yes, he is about his duty, but he has no sass, woe (except Mercier). One of the things I do not like about versions of the stage show I've seen is the ANGSTY LOOSENING OF THE PONYTAIL. I mean, I like a little emotion during the suicide--even Terry had some emotion on the OBC--but that just makes me giggle.

It's just as if no one paid any attention to meter or rhyme while writing most of them, which I find very odd.

Right? I am beginning to think the musical director had really poor judgement, and it's a miracle the music came out as well as it did, considering.

I will go FRAME BY FRAME to get your definitive answer. :D

[cahn]

Oh, hee, yeah, the ANGSTY PONYTAIL. I remember the first time I saw it I was all "wow, he needs to take better care of his hair, it's all askew," totally missing that it was supposed to be intentional!

I just don't understand how they could spend so much money making this movie and yet not, y'know, ask someone who had had more than a year's worth of training in, oh, music or even English, to review the lyrics! (Or maybe they did and ignored it?)

Yay definitive answer!!