oyceter. Les Miserables (2012) (Reply)

This is the first non-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber musical I ever glommed onto, and though my interest in Phantom eventually declined, never to be revived, my love of Les Mis has waxed and waned. I think it's the central theme of revolution and telling the stories of the people who usually aren't the heroes (granted, with extreme sentimentality and focus on the shining goodness of specific characters) versus the love story of Phantom.

We missed the first minute or so of the movie, which I am sad about. I wanted to see "Look Down"!

Singing notes: I had very lowered expectations due to reviews and my own guesses.
- Hugh Jackman was about as good as I thought he would be, and the out-of-range bits ("Bring Him Home," most notably) weren't terrible. Also, though I know they don't film the movie in one shot, it sounded like he had been singing nonstop the entire time, and by the end, his voice was pretty shot.
- Russell Crowe was actually better than I had expected, since I was prepared for a Pierce-Brosnan-esque debacle. At least he could hold the tune mostly? Unfortunately, he basically didn't emote during any of his songs—how do you not emote for "Stars"?!—and instead of the very clipped, militaristic feel a lot of the production Javerts have, he felt very mumbly and OOC.
- Anne Hathaway: so much better than what I had expected from the preview clips. Phew.
- Amanda Seyfried: Er. Not terrible? Though Cosette is clearly very out of her range. (Seriously, director! Cosette's songs are hard! Why do this to Seyfried and us?)
- Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen: You guys do much better as comedy in musicals where the comedy doesn't need to have singing chops! (I mean, really, Pirelli?)
- And as with I suspect many movie versions of musicals, the secondary cast had much better vocal chops because they didn't have to cast any giant names. I particularly liked the Grantaire and young!Cosette.
I was sadly not as enchanted with Enjolras as I was when I first saw it live in high school. Although I love that they managed to echo the original staging when it comes to Enjolras' death, even though it isn't on the barricade.

Ahahaha, Marius and Cosette falling in love is just as ridiculous as always. Also, er, some more exposition before going on to "Now we will never part and all is well!" would make the relationship 1000% more convincing.
I love that we get to see Eponine binding before going to the barricade. I'm not sure how I feel about the change with her concealing Cosette's letter as opposed to delivering Marius' to Valjean and Cosette. On the one hand, don't like seeing her being sneaky about the letter. On the other hand, really like that she gets to see a bit more action on the barricade than she usually does in the show.

LOVE the second "Look Down" sequence. In fact, loved all the shots of Paris in general, all the crowd shots, all the scenery. Well, except for Valjean randomly climbing mountains in the beginning. It feels as though LotR cinematography is now so embedded in cultural consciousness that to show anyone traveling, they must be up on the peak of snowy mountains, silhouetted against the sky.

Really wish there had been more blocking and less focusing on the singers' faces. It was fine at first, but by the time they got to "Empty Chairs," I was really, really sick of looking at everyone's teary eyes. I especially think "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Empty Chairs" might have benefitted from some hazy sepia-toned flashbacks. And just... the shots of Paris! The shots of the factory! All of these are great things for establishing location and scale and whatnot in a way that fits the movie medium. Also, I love things like period costumes and furniture and etc. etc. etc. and wanted to ogle more.

The new song was so random. I mean, it's not like Valjean doesn't have enough soliloquies. Also, the lyrics sounded terrible, but that may just be because I'm so used to the other songs that I don't notice how terrible they are.

I really hate the change in the ending where it's supposed to be "It's the story of those who always loved you. Your mother gave her life for you then gave you to my keeping." to something I can't quite remember about Cosette being the thing that redeemed Valjean. Yes, way to make it all about his manpain!

Cosette and Marius: still boring. I suspect they will always be boring. Also, I am very sad about the general focus on everyone's faces; Cosette has gorgeous-lookingn 1830s clothes with the giant puff sleeves, and I really really wanted to see more of her outfits. /clothes porn

I know the press is making a huge deal out of the live singing thing, which makes me roll my eyes, but I really did think it made a difference in terms of the acting and the emoting of everyone except Russell Crowe.

Fantasy casting time! What Hollywood people would you want to cast in various roles? I'd probably try to replace Russell Crowe with Alan Cummings or John C. Reilly. I'm not sure I know anyone in Hollywood who has the range for Cosette... Other than that, I think I'd keep the rest of the cast.