Movie Review #9: Les Miserables (2012)

When I heard that they were making a movie adaptation of the legendary musical, I assumed two things:

1: My parents and sister, being huge fans of the musical, would take me to see this.
2: I would be bored senseless.

I was correct on the first and COMPLETELY wrong on the second.

During the second French Revolution, a frenchman named Jean Valjean, (Played by Wolverine), who agrees to take care of dying factory workers' daughter. While this takes place, Valjean is being hunted by Inspector Javert, played by Russell Crowe, because he broke his parole.

Now of all the musicals that I have seen, this is by far stands out as the most powerful. I don't think that this film would have been as moving if director Tom Hooper didn't  make the cast sing live. That was what made the movie for me. By making them sing live, it showed the raw emotion. The actors were able to incorporate a true sense of pain, sorrow and sadness. Now the singing isn't smooth all the time, but it pays off in the end. In most broadway film adaptations, they choose actors with the more star power than vocal chops. This time they got actors with both. Hugh Jackman was terrific, even though his voice takes some getting used to. He definitely earned that Golden Globe. Anne Hathaway was perhaps my favorite part of the film. You will have tears in your eyes and a lump in your throat when she sings I Dreamed a Dream. Now many people gave Russell Crowe a lot of flak for his voice. I am not one of those people. He played his character well, he looked the part and I'll admit it, I got a little misty-eyed when he sang Stars. Aside from the leads, the supporting cast is even better. Whether you're talking about Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter or even Sacha Baron Cohen, all of them are perfect.

Final Report: I rarely cry when watching movies. Heck, I barely cried when I first saw Toy Story 3! But by the end of this movie, I sobbed for roughly 20 minutes. Les Miserables was one of my top 10 favorite movie of 2012. I might even say top five.

P.S. While typing out this review, I decided that I will start posting reviews of my five favorite movie musicals. (This musical being number one).