When I was 15, I went to see Les Miserables on Broadway with a big group of people. I have vague memories of the show itself, mostly involving the music and performances. I recall thinking that I loved the music, the performances, and the overall production values, but I never was able to follow the story of the show. Maybe my youth played a role in that - at the time I thought Speed was one of the best movies I'd ever seen - so ever since I saw the musical production I'd wanted to see a film version of the story, hopefully so I'd understand the actual course of events better.
I'm aware there was a version made in 1998 with Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman in a non-musical adaptation of the novel, but I have never seen it. I was very interested in seeing this new musical film version, especially if there was as much singing as there was in the Broadway production. To my surprise somewhat, the film is a musical start to finish, with only a few scant lines of actual dialogue scattered about the film.
Now that I've seen the musical film and have a much better understanding of the actual story of all the characters, I'm going to make a relatively bold prediction: Les Miserables is going to win Best Picture at the 2013 Academy Awards.
The overarching story is fairly well-known: Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is paroled from prison on the provision that he meets with his parole officer every year thereafter upon his release. He decides not to visit his parole, and has Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) pursues him for years while he is on the run. Several years after his escape, Valjean hides under the fake persona of La Mer and runs a business where the young Fantine (Anne Hathaway) works. Valjean wants to help Fantine care for her daughter Cosette, eventually taking Cosette as his adopted daughter while still on the run from Javert.
Let me start with talking about the performances. Jackman and Hathaway are both excellent in their roles, giving arguably the best individual performances of their careers to date. Hathaway is only in the film for 30 minutes or so, but her performance where she had to sing "I Dreamed a Dream" is one of the most moving scenes in any film I've ever seen. She sings the entire song in one continuous take with the camera focused on her face the entire time, leaving the audience to feel every note and heart-breaking tear along with her.
Jackman is equally gut-wrenching during his solo songs, especially "Who Am I". Even the first number of the film where he is in prison, Jackman is barely recognizable as a super lean, disheveled, and broken man. He looks and sings as an incredibly exhausted man, so it's almost a relief for the audience to see him several years later even though he's on the run from Javert. His "Bring Him Home" is a fatherly and emotional prayer for Marius (Eddie Redmayne, in another great performance) to come home safely once Marius and Cosette fall in love.
Les Mis's technical side needs to be discussed in detail too. I don't often talk about things like editing, cinematography, or set design in my reviews, but they all bear worth discussion. The editing in this film is probably something most film audiences won't think about, but during the song "One Day More" we cross cut back and forth from Valjean, the revolutionists, Javert, and Cosette throughout the number. It's my personal favorite sequence in the entire film, though it's so climactic I almost wish the film had more of a break in the music before the next song started up less than a minute later. The audience could have used another moment or two to breathe before the action continued.
Still, my one quibble is very minor. Director Tom Hooper did a masterful job in weaving all the story lines and characters in a much more coherent fashion than the Broadway play. The film medium is probably better suited for the audience to identify with all the characters so we can see their faces, and Hooper made sure all we can see is their faces during their individual songs. He only keeps the actors' faces in focus in the foreground, and everything in the background is out of focus as they sing. It's really the reverse of seeing it on Broadway, since most audience members can't see the actors in the theatrical production, and it works to the film's benefit.
Les Mis is the best film I've seen in a long time, even better than Ben Affleck's Argo from a couple months ago. I don't really have any interest in who wins Best Picture or other major awards at the Oscars anymore, but I'd be pretty shocked if it doesn't win some of the big awards come February. It definitely needs to be seen on the big screen to take advantage of its photography and scope.
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