Les Miserables Film Review

As many of you may know I am a huge Les Miserables fan and had been waiting patiently to see the new film version of my all time favourite musical. I had been looking forward to it all week but I have to say I was left extremely disappointed. First off this show is probably one of the most powerful shows you could ever see. As you sit in the theatre and you hear those first notes of the overture you will be hard pressed not to get goosebumps. Right off the bat, the film lacked that power. Hugh Jackman's singing left much to be desired which I was greatly surprised by as he is a Tony Award winner. His vibrato drove me absolutely nuts, as did Amanda Seyfield's. The entire film she sounded like she was on helium. I felt Tom Hooper really put the actors at a disadvantage by deciding not to sing the entire film, as it is done on stage. This addition of spoken dialogue made the singing seem out of place and silly. I cringed when they'd burst into song (and I'm a musical fanatic.) I felt they cut a lot of the most powerful bits from songs to shorten the film. Also the reorganisation of the songs to a new order made the film feel jumbled and hard to follow. This meant the addition of new lyrics to fill in the gaps breaking up the flow of the original show. New unneeded characters made the story hard to follow as well unless you were familiar with the show and the book. I will say I was incredibly surprised by both Crowe's and Redmayne's performances. They weren't incredible singers, but much better than I thought. Crowe actually has a lovely singing voice and with training could be very good. His acting was incredible as well. The inclusion of Colm Wilkonson (the original Valjean) was a nice touch and nod to us avid fans. Even though it's been pointed out that he's much to old to play Valjean now, to me he will always be Valjean and no one will ever be as good. Aaron Trevit as Enjolras I felt was put at an extreme disadvantage. He's a great singer and Enjolras is a wonderful part but the writers seemed to over shadow him with Marius, making it seem like Marius was the leader of the revolutionaries which in fact is not true. The addition of "Suddenly" to grab an Oscar gong was horrible. Felt really out of place and wasn't even a very good song. I did cry at the end but sure the finale makes me cry every time I hear it. The final number is so powerful that even the most cold-hearted bastard will find it hard not to be moved. I personally would not recommend the film. If you want to see Les Miserables check out the 10th Anniversary Concert here. It's 10 times better. To keep my sanity I will stick to the anniversary concerts. I give it a 4/10. So lovies, are you Les Mis fans? Do you love the film or hate it? Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

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