Film Review: Les Mis?rables | OregonLive.com

It was as inevitable as the French Revolution. "Les Mis?rables," the worldwide smash stage musical based on Victor Hugo's epic 19th-century novel, has finally come to the screen. This lavish production comes equipped with a bevy of movie stars singing their hearts out, but lacks in some crucial ways the cohesion and spectacle of the live performance with which it will assuredly be compared.

It tells, of course, the decades-spanning tale of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), the long-suffering parolee who, after serving years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, makes a new, prosperous life for himself, only to be haunted by the pursuit of the relentless Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). After realizing he has contributed to the misfortune of the doomed Fantine (Anne Hathaway), Valjean vows to look after her young daughter as if she were his own. Things come to a head during a Parisian street uprising, when Valjean tries to protect both the now-grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and her lover Marius (Eddie Redmayne).

None of the performers embarrass themselves, despite the fact that all the singing was reportedly done live, without any post-production dubbing. Jackman, Crowe, and Hathaway have all shown off their pipes in the past, and Hathaway's single-shot, close-up performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" is a highlight. Seyfried and Redmayne are their equals (in Crowe's case, his betters), as is Samantha Barks, one of the few holdovers from the stage production, as the pining ?ponine.

Despite this, the film does tend to drag. This may be heresy, but both Valjean and Javert are wet blankets, one with his continual self-sacrifice and moping, the other with his imperturbable, robotic pursuit of legal justice. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter provide some needed, but awkward, comic relief as Cosette's venal foster parents, though they seem to have wandered in from a "Sweeney Todd" production next door.

The narrative moves in fits and starts, slowing to a crawl during the songs and leaping forward dizzyingly at other times. And the cinematic technique of director Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") tries to replicate the appeal which has drawn millions to stage performances, but comes up more than a little short. This version of "Les Mis?rables" simply doesn't sing.

(157 min., PG-13, multiple locations) Grade: B- ?

?Marc Mohan ?

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2012/12/film_review_les_misrables.html

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