‘Les Miserables’ is entertaining but flawed

Les Miserables is an imperfect, yet enjoyable, film.

Based on the popular stage musical, which was in turn adapted from the classic Victor Hugo novel of the same name, Les Miserables tells a narrative of love, faith, revolution and redemption in 19th century France and does it largely through song.

The story follows Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a convict who is released from prison after 19 years. Shunned by society for his status as a former inmate, a chance encounter with a merciful bishop (Colm Wilkinson) gives him the means and inspiration to begin a new life.

Assuming a different identity, Valjean becomes a wealthy factory owner and mayor of a town. Unfortunately the zealous policeman Javert (Russell Crowe) is eager to return Valjean to prison for breaking his parole and begins to suspect him.

When a series of events, including Valjean coming to the aid of his destitute former employee Fantine (Anne Hathaway), causes Javert to discover Valjean’s identity, Valjean is forced to go on the run, all while still trying to keep the promise he’s made to himself to live a virtuous life.

Let me get one thing out of the way: This was the first version of Les Miserables I’d seen. I was familiar with the story because I’d seen non-musical film adaptations of the novel but, unlike many of my friends, this was my first time encountering most of the songs.

And these songs are an essential part of the movie. Indeed, apart from a few scattered lines of dialogue, Les Miserables is practically an opera, with most of the major conflicts and conversations being sung.

Which brings me to the film’s biggest problem: Way too many of its musical performances are lackluster.

This doesn’t seem to be the fault of the music itself. The songs I’ve heard from Les Miserables outside of the film’s production were powerful and arresting.

Unfortunately in this film version, there are far too many songs and portions of songs that fall flat.

Some of this has to do with the way the movie chooses to arrange the songs, but most of it can be laid at the feet of the performers.

Interestingly enough, there isn’t anyone here who does a uniformly bad job. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and most of the other cast members performances all have their effective and weak portions. But the end result is the erratic quality of the singing prevented me from getting swept up in the music for most of the film.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the best performances in the film come from dedicated musical theater actors Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop of Digne and Samantha Barks as Eponine, as well as newcomer Isabelle Allen, who plays Cosette as a child.

Indeed, Wilkinson’s small role as the bishop is the film’s most powerful performance, which isn’t too surprising when one considers he played Jean Valjean on stage for years.

The movie also doesn’t do the best job utilizing the cinematic form to its advantage. Although it definitely makes a go at it in places, there were very few moments where I felt the camera,  cinematography or set design really enhanced the film.

That being said, the overall strength of the source material ends up carrying the movie and makes up for many of its flaws in execution.

The story of Les Miserables is incredibly powerful, and I couldn’t help but feel emotional as the film’s final number was sung. Additionally, the fact that all of the performers have their effective moments means that the production always keeps its head above water. Les Miserables has a lot of good parts, and its bad portions are far  from being serious enough to ruin the overall experience of watching it.

Whether or not you go to see Les Miserables should be determined by your answer to one question: Do you like musicals? This production of Les Miserables will certainly entertain those who enjoy musical theater, but it won’t be winning any new converts to the genre.

So, if you aren’t inclined to see people singing for two hours, or are agnostic on the issue, then I’d recommend you buy a ticket for something else. On the other hand, if the thought of seeing a celebrated musical brought to the big screen excites you, then you should definitely make room in your schedule to watch Les Miserables.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on January 10, 2013. Filed under Arts and Entertainment,Columns,Movie Reviews,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry