Tending very much to a middle-aged audience this striking period piece follows the life of former criminal ' Jean Valjean' ( Jackman) in 19th century revolutionary France when he breaks parole and finds himself in pursuit from 'Javert' (Crowe), a ruthless police-officer. There is clearly more to this story then its striped narrative makes there out to be, following also the life of a young girl 'Cosette' after her mum tragically dies and 'Jean Valjean' agrees to look after her. However when looked at it structurally it's crucially lacking in any depth following the story of just one man and his inseparable life issues. This isn't necessarily a bad thing however as it does provide for a more detailed analysis to be provided for the plot at hand making it all seem thoroughly more realistic and immersive despite it's inexcusable pacing issues.Introduced immediately to the hardship of Valjean's captivity through a visually stunning scene of evident emotional and physical depravity, Les Miserables rarely let's up from this point proving to be just as consistently impressive. Coinciding with the spectacular introduction we are also met by Hooper's ambitious attempt for praise with nearly every piece of dialogue in the film being sung. With such an audacious inclusion the film did reasonably well in making this seem as authentic as possible with the songs also being sung live on set. This inclusion not only helped to make every number seem all the more emotionally engaging but will also considerably aid in the probability of Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman receiving deserved academy awards. Most notably the performance of Anne Hathaway was absolutely breath-taking, most poignantly whilst singing the musicals most universally known song of 'I dreamed a dream' which sent the audience into an emotional silence whilst Hathaway held them in the palm of her hand for what seemed like seconds. This scene is certainly the most memorable with the camera never leaving her face in this impassioned scene which acts as one of the most powerful moments of cinema in recent years, almost making surrounding scenes seem sub-par in comparison.
After the emotionally draining performance of Hathaway has ended the film gradually descends into a slightly cumbersome and confused picture as it simply procrastinates, lying in wait for the next song and for a performance that fulfils a similar emotion. This arguably comes at the appearance of comedy duo Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter in their bizarrely extraneous humourous number and performances to match. Surrounding such a light-hearted scene are moments of a somber nature and to see such a contrasting scene in comparison to the remaining narrative felt totally out of place if unarguably refreshing. It felt as if though the film had realised it's depressing features following the completion of the film and simply decided to shoe-horn in a comedic scene to make sure 'audiences were crying for the right reasons'. The performances of both extremely talented actors were of course fantastic, they just felt a little out of place.
A sub-plot to the bulging personality of the main narrative is the love story between Cosette (Seyfried) and Marius (Redmayne) which may be touching and emotional but is also undoubtedly jagged and unsettled. The relationship felt forced and un-established feeling almost devoid of emotion at times. The only element of this plot which was fleshed out was the relationship between Marius and his envious secret lover Eponie (Barks) who provides a powerful performance with a fantastic solo number to match standing almost as impressive as Anne Hathaway's effort. Although it feels shoe-horned it's oddly fitting that the relationship feels this way as this coagulates with the feelings of both characters, whether this was intentional or not is impossible to tell, never the less this felt more of a hindrance than a fitting love story.
For a picture that is a proud musical, of course actors of a fine-tuned vocal nature are expected and are mostly provided but are not helped with the occasionally disjointed background score that came as no fault of the actors. Most notably the performances of both the award nominated Hathaway and Jackman were outstanding as well as the overlooked performance of Russell Crowe who although leans towards a cabaret singing style on occasion, mostly holds his own and provides a passionate performance giving heart behind a character who is widely hated.
Les Miserables is even more impressive when considering it's ambitious properties and although it falls flat at points proving to be more overly-excessive than cinematically fascinating it remains to be a truly commendable piece of cinema. Each and every performance is fantastic with help to their finely tuned vocal chords of even the extras, an aspect which is excellent and highly overlooked. Similarly to nearly every Oscar contender this could do with a cut down in running time with it's conclusion edging on tedious, however it proves to be a momentous achievement despite it's (les) miserable features.
8/10- An enthralling picture with fantastic performances full feeling sure to make your eyes water.
Calum Russell
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