Review Roundup (12/6): LES MISERABLES Movie
by Review Roundups
Christmas can't get here fast enough, because that's when LES MISERABLES hits the big screen. Les Misérables is the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year.
Helmed by The Kings Speechs Academy Award-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, Oscar® winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Official reviews of the movie are still embargoed, but full reviews are slowing started to be released. Check out what the critics are saying thus far below!
Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail: I've seen the film three times and each time the film seemed to grow in stature. I go to bed with the songs from Les Miserables ringing in my ears. I think of One More Day, Red and Black, Do you Hear the People Sing, Bring Him Home and Little People (by the way Daniel Huttlestone's Gavroche is very striking).
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: One of the chief interests of the film is discovering the singing abilities of the notable actors assembled here, other than Jackman, whose musical prowess is well known. Crowe, who early in his career starred in The Rocky Horror Show and other musicals onstage in Australia, has a fine, husky baritone, while Eddie Redmayne surprises with a singing voice of lovely clarity. Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean onstage in London and New York, turns up here as the benevolent Bishop of Digne.
Robbie Collin, Telegraph: Les Misérables is only Hoopers fourth feature, and his directorial style is still bedding in: some big, comic-book camera angles feel a touch over-egged, as does the extraordinarily shallow focus he uses in close-up. But he marshals the spectacle so spectacularly that it hardly matters. Hoopers screenwriter William Nicholson (Shadowlands) has judiciously tinkered with the song order, which makes Les Misérables feel not only definitive, but utterly cinematic. You leave with not one song in your heart, but ten.
Justin Chang, Variety: As a faithful rendering of a justly beloved musical, "Les Miserables" will more than satisfy the show's legions of fans. Even so, director Tom Hooper and the producers have taken a number of artistic liberties with this lavish bigscreen interpretation: The squalor and upheaval of early 19th-century France are conveyed with a vividness that would have made Victor Hugo proud, heightened by the raw, hungry intensity of the actors' live oncamera vocals. Yet for all its expected highs, the adaptation has been managed with more gusto than grace; at the end of the day, this impassioned epic too often topples beneath the weight of its own grandiosity.
Jon Weisman, Variety: Best picture nominee? Fer sure. Best picture winner? Not necessarily, because while it is a film that soars in many places and is rock solid in others, "Les Miserables" also displays enough bumps and bruises to hurt it (and director Tom Hooper) in a close race. Some of the flaws I identified come from comparing it to the musical that I've held near and dear to my heart ever since I saw it Thanksgiving week 1987 in London no doubt, a huge swath of Academy members have their own personal relationship with the film, and I find it a little hard to believe that they won't nitpick it.
Marlow Stern, Daily Beast: Nearly every number in Hoopers film is brilliantly performed, with other highlights including Jackmans rendition of What Have I Done following his silver theft, the camera skying upward to reveal a beautiful eye of God shot (a nifty trick repeated to equally thrilling effect several times throughout the film); the quodlibet One Day More, with Hooper cutting to different members of the cast; and the heartbreaking ballad On My Own, magnificently sung by Barks (who played the role on the West End). And of course, the revolutionary anthem Do You Hear the People Sing soars to the heavens.
Oliver Littelton, Indie Wire: Standing ovations and tear-stained handkerchiefs greeted showings on both coasts, along with a general consensus that the film is a triumphant screen version of the stage musical hit destined to be a big Oscar player. And while we wouldn't want to jump in until reviews officially drop next month, it's certainly the biggest threat to "Lincoln" at present, and might well turn out to be the big dog of the season.
Scott Feinberg, Hollywood Reporter: Whether or not the use of actors' live on-set singing (as opposed to re-recording it in post-production) actually enhances the believability of a film more than it compromises the quality of the music, audiences seem to have been sold on the former, thanks in large part to Universal's recent featurette about the practice. Moreover, any "first" makes for a great talking-point on the awards season campaign trail. (Incidentally, all of the musical numbers were also shot in close-up and uninterrupted takes.)
Steve Zeitchik, LA Times: There will be plenty of review takes later, so suffice to say that in-between the movie offers some rousing emotion and vivid set pieces, uneven pacing and the sight of Russell Crowe singing. (He's fine as the law-enforcing Javert but, like Hugh Jackmans Jean Valjean and the other males in the cast, pales next to the women, Amanda Seyfrieds Cosette and particularly Anne Hathaways Fantine, whose single-take, close-up "I Dreamed a Dream" is bound to bring down multiplexes and land her on Oscar ballots.) Other Kleenex-producing musical numbers include the large-scale Do You Hear The People Sing?," offered in reprise later in the film. (Samantha Barks' "On My Own did not have the same effect on this reporter; others may disagree.)
Mike Ryan, Huffington Post: I will say, as a complete novice to the world of Les Miz (I've decided to go with Les Miz, by the way), I thought the film was wonderful and found myself momentarily confused only a handful of times. (This is arguably my fault for being easily confusable.) My personal favorite movie this year is still Argo, but after seeing Les Miz, my gut is telling me that it will beat both Argo and Lincoln for Best Picture. And the talk you may or may not have heard about Anne Hathaway being a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actress as Fantine is true. (Though, again, not knowing anything about Les Miz, I was honestly shocked by how little she is in this movie.)
Tom O'Neil, Gold Derby: Reviews are embargoed until Dec. 11 so it's tricky to discuss the film, but here goes. The audience flipped for it. It's (nearly) everything that "Les Miz" nuts hoped for. Eddie Redmayne is the big surprise. His performance wows and, yikes, who knew he could sing like that? Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter try to steal the film -- and the contents of every pocket in 19th-century Paris. But Carter can't win. Anne Hathaway has Best Supporting Actress in the bag and Hugh Jackman poses a serious threat to Daniel Day-Lewis' dominion over Best Actor.
