movie review of les miserables

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Les miserables, common sense media reviewers.

Excellent film adaptation of gritty, heartbreaking musical.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The story's ultimate take-away is about the redemp

Although Jean Valjean is a fugitive who breaks par

Much of the second half of the film focuses on th

Some bawdy scenes/references, especially in a few

Almost all the dialogue is sung, with very little

Several scenes feature people drinking wine, inclu

Parents need to know that this all-star version of Les Miserables is an adaptation of the world-famous stage musical, which itself is based on Victor Hugo's classic 1862 novel. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway star in the gritty, often-heartbreaking tale of justice, duty, love, and revolution…

Positive Messages

The story's ultimate take-away is about the redemptive power of faith and love -- of God and/or of another person. And it raises thoughtful questions about the nature of justice, power, and duty. That said, many of the characters live truly miserable lives, and good deeds are rarely rewarded. But Jean Valjean does seek to do the right thing and to care for others, even though it might cost him his freedom. And Marius and his cohorts are motivated by passion and dedication to an ideal, even if things don't go the way they planned.

Positive Role Models

Although Jean Valjean is a fugitive who breaks parole and spends much of the film trying to avoid being recaptured, the fact that he was originally imprisoned for a minor crime and then spends the rest of his life trying to selflessly help others are powerful mitigating factors. The dogged Javert is motivated by a powerful sense of duty and always thinks he's doing the right thing. The students are driven by a passionate belief in a cause. Fantine is a devoted mother who will do anything to keep her child safe; Eponine is similarly self-sacrificing for love. The Thenardiers are moral black holes who stop at nothing to make a profit, but they're clearly intended to be scoundrels.

Violence & Scariness

Much of the second half of the film focuses on the June Rebellion, a Paris uprising in 1832; there are many battle scenes that include gunfights, cannons, explosions, hand-to-hand combat with bayonets and fists, and plenty of dramatic, sad deaths (even children are involved). Because it's a musical, the violence is more play-like than realistic, and there's not much blood or gore (though one post-battle scene does show a stream of blood running down the cobblestone pavement), but it feels much grittier than the stage production. There are also some nasty beatings and a bone-crunching suicide leap. A woman prostitutes herself out of desperation; the scene is brutal and heart-wrenching. She scuffles with a potential client and bites him (a little blood is shown).

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some bawdy scenes/references, especially in a few scenes that feature prostitutes and a brothel. One scene shows a prostitute being used by a client (her skirt is up; he's on top of her); it isn't erotic or revealing. Lots of cleavage; lyrics include phrases like "ready for a quick one or a thick one in the park" and "thinks he's quite a lover, but there's not much there."

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Almost all the dialogue is sung, with very little profanity, but there are a couple of uses of words including "s--t" (once), "bitch," "ass," "hell," "damn," and "bastard." Other songs have some sexual references and mentions of whores.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Several scenes feature people drinking wine, including one set at an inn that's filled with drunken patrons.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this all-star version of Les Miserables is an adaptation of the world-famous stage musical, which itself is based on Victor Hugo's classic 1862 novel. Hugh Jackman , Russell Crowe , and Anne Hathaway star in the gritty, often-heartbreaking tale of justice, duty, love, and revolution. The film deals with abject poverty, prostitution, imprisonment, corruption, war, and death; all of which fans of the musical will be expecting -- but bringing the story to the screen means it has a much more realistic feel (despite the fact that the actors sing virtually all of the dialogue). Characters suffer painful beatings, degrade themselves out of desperation, engage in gun and bayonet fights, claw their way through unspeakable filth, and more. Expect some bawdy lyrics/references (with a sprinkling of curse words, including one "s--t"), a very sad scene in which an unwilling prostitute "entertains" a client, plenty of cleavage, some blood, and a few very sad deaths (including one suicide). But ultimately, Les Miserables is about the redemptive power of love and faith, and there are many moments of hope and beauty amid the miserable ones. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Kids say (190)

Based on 48 parent reviews

Incredible film

Disappointing, what's the story.

Set in 1800s France, LES MISERABLES is a faithful adaptation of the massively popular stage show -- which is based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo. The basic story centers on Jean Valjean ( Hugh Jackman ), a fugitive who's wanted for breaking parole after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread (and then trying to escape). The dogged and misguidedly by-the-book Inspector Javert ( Russell Crowe ) is at his heels, even though it's been years since Valjean left prison. Meanwhile, the former convict has dedicated himself to helping others -- especially Cosette, the young daughter of doomed factory worker Fantine ( Anne Hathaway ), who loses her job and turns to prostitution in desperation. After Fantine's death, Valjean raises Cosette ( Amanda Seyfried ) as his own until they're both caught up in the June Rebellion of 1832 in Paris, when Valjean encounters Javert again and must decide whether to continue to live on the run or take a stand. Cosette, meanwhile, has fallen for the young revolutionary Marius ( Eddie Redmayne ) -- but little does he know that Eponine (Samantha Barks), the daughter of the crooked innkeepers who had initially raised Cosette on Fantine's behalf, is enamored of him. Love and duty are intertwined in this searing epic about faith, forgiveness, class struggles, politics, poverty, and change.

Is It Any Good?

From the first scene, Les Miserables is both majestic and brutal, the beauty of the cinematography and the music achingly juxtaposed against the cruelty and savagery of its characters' lives. Expect your emotions to be wrenched this way and that; the actors -- especially Jackman, Hathaway, and Crowe -- have thrown everything on the table, making for a movie you won't easily forget. Director Tom Hooper had the actors sing live as the cameras rolled, and it was a brilliant decision, capturing the rawness of performances that sought to elevate the actors beyond warbling iconic songs in tune. You can feel them living the lyrics, sampling them as if they've never been sung before.

No wonder the film has earned so many accolades; this one's worth the buzz. Crowe's craggy, rock-star voice at times feels at odds with the rest of the cast's style, but his deeply felt Javert persuades. In the end, he seems utterly lost and broken, and we feel for him. At times you wish the camera would pull back a little, or that the score could quiet down a little to let a moment just be -- there's virtue in the plainly staged scene, too -- but there are few of those, thankfully. Les Miserables is a wonder.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's messages. What is it saying about faith and love? About justice and duty? Why is Javert so determined to take Valjean back to prison? Valjean clearly becomes a noble person, even though he's also a fugitive and a lawbreaker. Does he deserve to go to back to jail, as the law requires?

Why are the students so passionate about their cause? Do you agree with them that it's one worth dying for? Have you ever felt that strongly about anything?

How well do film actors perform in a movie that requires them to sing almost every line of dialogue? Why do you think filmmakers cast mostly movie stars instead of veteran stage actors?

For fans of the stage musical -- which version do you prefer, and why? What was changed? What was missing -- or added? Why do you think the filmmakers made the changes they did?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 25, 2012
• On DVD or streaming : March 22, 2013
• Cast : Anne Hathaway , Hugh Jackman , Russell Crowe
• Director : Tom Hooper
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Musical
• Topics : Book Characters , History , Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 157 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements
• Awards : Academy Award , Golden Globe
• Last updated : May 20, 2024

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Breaking news, morgan spurlock, director of ‘super size me,’ dies at 53, les miserables: film review.

Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe sing -- and wage a Sisyphean battle against musical diarrhea -- in Tom Hooper's adaptation of the stage sensation.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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A gallery of stellar performers wages a Sisyphean battle against musical diarrhea and a laboriously repetitive visual approach in the big-screen version of the stage sensation Les Miserables . Victor Hugo ‘s monumental 1862 novel about a decades-long manhunt, social inequality, family disruption, injustice and redemption started its musical life onstage in 1980 and has been around ever since, a history of success that bodes well for this lavish, star-laden film. But director Tom Hooper has turned the theatrical extravaganza into something that is far less about the rigors of existence in early 19th century France than it is about actors emoting mightily and singing their guts out. As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

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The Bottom Line Well-sung but bombastic screen version of the musical theater perennial.

The first thing to know about this Les Miserables is that this creation of Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, is, with momentary exceptions, entirely sung, more like an opera than a traditional stage musical. Although not terrible, the music soon begins to slur together to the point where you’d be willing to pay the ticket price all over again just to hear a nice, pithy dialogue exchange between Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe rather than another noble song that sounds a lot like one you just heard a few minutes earlier. There were 49 identifiable musical numbers in the original show, and one more has been added here.

Greatly compounding the problem is that director Hooper, in his first outing since conquering Hollywood two years ago with his breakthrough feature, The King’s Speech, stages virtually every scene and song in the same manner, with the camera swooping in on the singer and thereafter covering him or her and any other participants with hovering tight shots; there hasn’t been a major musical so fond of the close-up since Joshua Logan attempted to photograph Richard Harris ‘ tonsils in Camelot . Almost any great musical one can think of features sequences shot in different ways, depending upon the nature of the music and the dramatic moment; for Hooper, all musical numbers warrant the same monotonous approach of shoving the camera right in the performer’s face; any closer and their breath would fog the lens, as, in this instance, the actors commendably sang live during the shooting, rather than being prerecorded.

With Hooper’s undoubted encouragement, the eager thespians give it their all here, for better and for worse. The “live” vocal performances provide an extra vibrancy and immediacy that is palpable, though one cannot say that the technique is necessarily superior in principle, as it was also used by Peter Bogdanovich on his famed folly, At Long Last Love.

PHOTOS: Inside the Fight to Bring ‘Les Mis’ to the Screen

One of the chief interests of the film is discovering the singing abilities of the notable actors assembled here, other than Jackman, whose musical prowess is well-known. Crowe, who early in his career starred in The Rocky Horror Show and other musicals onstage in Australia, has a fine, husky baritone, while Eddie Redmayne surprises with a singing voice of lovely clarity. Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean onstage in London and New York, turns up here as the benevolent Bishop of Digne.

On the female side, Anne Hathaway dominates the early going, belting out anguish as the doomed Fantine. Playing her grown daughter Cosette, Amanda Seyfried delights with clear-as-a-bell high notes, while Samantha Barks , as a lovelorn Eponine, is a vocal powerhouse.

The problem, then, is not at all the singing itself but that the majority of the numbers are pitched at the same sonic-boom level and filmed the same way. The big occasion when Hooper tries something different, intercutting among nearly all the major characters at crossroads in the Act 1 climax “One Day More,” feels like a pale imitation of the electrifying “Tonight” ensemble in the film version of West Side Story.

It’s entirely possible that no book has been adapted more frequently to other media than Hugo’s epic, one of the longest novels ever written. About 60 big- and small-screen versions have been made throughout the world, beginning with a representation by the Lumiere brothers in 1897, and Orson Welles did a seven-part radio version in 1937. In 1985, five years after the Paris debut of the French musical, the English-language production, with a new libretto by Herbert Kretzmer and directed by Trevor Nunn, opened in London, to less-than-stellar reviews, and is still playing. The New York counterpart packed houses from 1987-2003 and, at 6,680 performances, ranks as the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history (it reopened in 2006 and played another two years).

PHOTOS: ‘Les Miserables’ World Premiere: Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway Celebrate Musical’s Big-Screen Adaptation

At the story’s core is Jean Valjean (Jackman), a convict who has served 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and trying to escape and, upon his release, redeems himself under a new identity as a wealthy factory owner and socially liberal mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer. But his former prison guard Javert (Crowe), now a police inspector, finds him out and, over a period of 17 years, mercilessly hounds him until their day of reckoning on the barricades in Paris during the uprising of June 1832.

Woven through it is no end of melodrama concerning Valjean raising Fantine’s beautiful daughter Cosette ( Isabelle Allen as a tyke, Seyfried as a young woman); the latter’s star-crossed romance with Marius (Redmayne), a wealthy lad turned idealistic revolutionary; his handsome comrade-in-arms Enjolras ( Aaron Tveit ) and the earthy Eponine, who woefully accepts that her beloved Marius is besotted by Cosette. Well and truly having rumbled in from the film version of Sweeney Todd , Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen gallumph through as small-time swindlers in very broad comic relief.

Startlingly emaciated in his initial scenes while still on strenuous prison work detail, Jackman’s Valjean subsequently cuts a more proper and dashing figure after his transformation into a gentleman. His defense of the abused Fantine and subsequent adoption of her daughter represent the fulcrum of Hugo’s central theme that a man can change and redeem himself, as opposed to Jalvert’s vehement conviction that once a criminal, always a criminal. The passions of all the characters are simple and deep, which accounts for much of the work’s enduring popularity in all cultures.

PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of THR’s ‘Les Miserables’ Cover Shoot

But it also makes for a film that, when all the emotions are echoed out at an unvarying intensity for more than 2 1/2 hours on a giant screen, feels heavily, if soaringly, monotonous. Subtle and nuanced are two words that will never be used to describe this Les Miserables , which, for all its length, fails to adequately establish two critical emotional links: that between Valjean and Cosette, and the latter’s mutual infatuation with Marius, which has no foundation at all.

Reuniting with his King’s Speech cinematographer Danny Cohen and production designer Eve Stewart, Hooper has handsome interior sets at his disposal. However, with the exception of some French city square and street locations, the predominant exteriors have an obvious CGI look. His predilection for wide-angle shots is still evident, if more restrained than before, but the editing by Melanie Ann Oliver and Chris Dickens frequently seems haphazard; the musical numbers sometimes build to proper visual climaxes in union with the music, but as often as not the cutting seems almost arbitrary, moving from one close-up to another, so that scenes don’t stand out but just mush together.

The actors are ideally cast but, with a couple of exceptions, give stage-sized turns for the screen; this bigness might well be widely admired. Jackman finally gets to show onscreen the musical talents that have long thrilled live musical theater audiences, Hathaway gamely gets down and dirty and has her hair clipped off onscreen in the bargain, and Redmayne impresses as a high-caliber singing leading man, but there is little else that is inventive or surprising about the performances. Still, there is widespread energy, passion and commitment to the cause, which for some might be all that is required.

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Review: ‘Les Misérables’ is compelling and terrifyingly real

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“Les Misérables” is not merely named after Victor Hugo’s celebrated novel, it shares its setting and succeeds splendidly in a mutual goal.

Directed and co-written by Ladj Ly, who was born, raised and still lives in Montfermeil, the perennially impoverished Parisian banlieue or suburb where Hugo set part of his story, “Les Misérables” has exploded on the French film scene.

Snapped up by Amazon almost immediately after its Cannes debut , it won the festival’s jury prize and became France’s Oscar submission , with Ly becoming the first black French filmmaker so honored.

The reason for all this excitement is that, like the original Hugo novel, “Les Misérables” is both culturally relevant and dramatically compelling, finding a way to balance artistic metaphor, hugely involving storytelling and criticism of a system that allows crushing poverty to survive and prosper.

Though this energetic, terrifyingly real film is Ly’s debut as a feature director, he has been making movies, mostly documentaries, for decades. In fact, a short film on the same subject was nominated for a César a couple of years ago.

Ly’s considerable skill aside, what makes “Les Misérables” such an immersive experience is the crackling sense of authenticity that is the film’s birthright.

Working with co-writers Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti and cinematographer Julien Poupard, Ly proves to be a superb orchestrator of time and space, taking us through two days in and around Montfermeil’s Bosquets housing project, where the sense that things can get out of hand in a heartbeat is ever-present.

In an inspired bit of counterpoint, Ly has chosen to open “Les Misérables” on an unexpected happy note. Inspired by 1998’s World Cup, he shows neighborhood kids headed into central Paris, draping themselves in the French flag and celebrating with people of all colors as their country wins. It’s a note of beautiful unity we never get close to again.

Operating in a much more confrontational manner are the three men of the local police’s Anti-Crime Squad, who drive around in a gray Peugeot focusing on keeping a lid on things.

Brand new to the squad is Stephane ( Damien Bonnard ), who has transferred in from another part of France and has been paired with veterans Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwana (Djebril Zonga).

While Gwana is mostly cool and laid back, the volcanic Chris, who glories in his Pink Pig nickname, is anything but.

A confrontational bigot with a hair-trigger temper, he immediately starts to needle Stephane, nicknaming him “Greaser” because of his hairstyle. When the new guy questions his lack of politeness, Chris snaps, “why don’t you work as a butler in a palace.”

As Stephane is introduced at the police station, we get to meet the area’s sardonic commander (a tartly unexpected Jeanne Balibar), who emphasizes the importance of group unity.

It’s at the police station that we get our first glimpse of Issa (Issa Perica), a boy whose father is furious at him for being a perpetual troublemaker, a characterization that turns out to be all too true.

We get to observe other neighborhood kids too, running around in packs looking to amuse themselves. Key among these is Buzz (Al-Hassan Ly), a quiet type with enormous glasses whose fixation on filming everything in the neighborhood from his drone, especially girls, becomes central to the plot.

As the police motor around and the veterans show the new guy the lay of the land, we get a sense of how balkanized this area is, how many power centers there are and how little they care for one another.

The police have no use for the area’s mayor (Steve Tientcheu), whom Chris needles as “our own Obama,” but because he has his own power base they need each other. The same goes for the local crime boss and for Salah (Almamy Kanouté), an imposing individual who is associated with the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

“Les Misérables’” plot kicks in when members of a just-arrived small traveling circus drive around the neighborhood screaming imprecations like, “whoever stole Jimmy, we’re going to eat your brains.”

Jimmy turns out to be a baby lion cub, and as the police attempt to get him back, something unforeseen and terrible happens and it is the nature of the neighborhood that each faction is desperate not to do the right thing but to find a way to use it to their advantage.

Ly says everything in the film was inspired by real events and, except for the three leads and Balibar, has cast it with non-professionals from the area.

Equally impressive, and this cannot have been easy, he is sympathetic to all sides, even the police, honoring the complexity of the situation by refusing to offer easy solutions to intractable problems.

More than anything, especially with its unnerving ending, “Les Misérables” wants us to think. What have we done as a society, what do we continue to do, what can be done to change things before it is too late.

'Les Misérables'

Rated: R, for language throughout, some disturbing/violent content, and sexual references Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 29, Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood; in limited release Jan. 10

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Books reach some readers at the very core; they influence the way their lives are lived, and the way they see themselves. "Les Miserables" is a film about such a book and reader and, because it is long and sprawling like Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, is about many other things as well. It contains scenes drawn from the novel, modern scenes that parallel the novel, and scenes which, strictly speaking, have nothing to do with the novel, including a great deal of material about the Nazi occupation of France and the persecution of the Jews.

The movie is not an adaptation of the long-running stage musical that has its own film version announced more or less annually, so far without result. This "Les Miserables" has been written, produced and directed by Claude Lelouch , who uses the legendary Jean-Paul Belmondo , now 63, in several modern roles, and even that of Hugo's hero Jean Valjean. Because the settings behind each story are so different, Belmondo doesn't resort to makeup tricks to change character, but simply portrays them, somehow projecting their different personalities onto his famously elastic face.

The result is a work that gives meaning to the word "epic." Shot in generous widescreen and running for almost three hours, the movie is a universe with room to move around in. It begins in 1900 with a story loosely inspired by Hugo's Valjean, who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. In the more modern version, a chauffeur (Belmondo) is wrongly accused of the death of his aristocratic employer, who committed suicide. He is imprisoned, and while his family starves and his wife is driven to prostitution, the chauffeur attempts to escape in a series of heartbreaking scenes, including one in which he swims an underwater passage and climbs a well, only to have to make an instant decision about his fate.

The chauffeur's son, Roger Fortin, grows up to be a boxer, becomes the French champion, and later drives his own moving van.

Meanwhile, we meet the Zimans, a Paris lawyer and his ballerina wife, who are married in the 1930s and linger too long in France before trying, as Jews, to escape the Nazi occupation. Eventually they are in the cab of Fortin's moving van, their possessions in the back, and Ziman has persuaded the former boxer to drive them to the Swiss border by promising to read Les Miserables to him. (Fortin cannot read, but once saw a film version of the story, and loves it.) Fortin is not, when we meet him, anything more than a former boxer who drives a moving van. But he has a vivid imagination and is able to see himself as Jean Valjean, and soon we do, too, because Lelouch intercuts scenes from the historical novel, also using Belmondo. Gradually, in a transformation that is one of the most intriguing uses of literature I have seen in the movies, Fortin begins to absorb some of the heroism and liberalism of the Hugo character, and becomes a hero himself.

The movie's World War II sequences play like separate short stories. There is the non-relationship of Madame Ziman, now a Nazi prisoner, with the German officer who fancies her, accepts her rejection, and later helps her escape. And Ziman's own bizarre adventure, when he is hidden in a cellar by a farmer and his wife, and pays them from his Swiss bank account. Reluctant to stop collecting his money, they do not tell him when the war ends.

The film is a wealth of incident: boxing matches, prison escapes, overland chases, a train robbery, high society, low crimes.

And the postwar sequel makes a pointed comment on the fact that some French collaborated with the Nazis, some did not, and in the postwar years justice was not always properly distributed among them.

What I liked about "Les Miserables" was the expansive freedom and energy of its storytelling. Lelouch, like Hugo, Dickens, Balzac and the other great 19th century novelists, is not riveted to a central story line, but proceeds in the general direction of his conclusion while freely allowing himself side excursions to characters and incidents that catch his eye along the way. Trying to reconstruct the story, you recall so many different faces (there are said to be 100 speaking roles in the movie) and locations that you realize a world has been created.

More than one world, actually. The world of Henri Fortin, the world of Roger Fortin, the world of the Zimans, and the world inside the head of an ordinary man who, by treasuring the story of one of the great heroes of French literature, absorbs some of his greatness.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Les Miserables (1995)

Rated R For Violence, Brief Language and Sexuality

174 minutes

Michel Boujenah as H. Ziman

Alessandra Martines as Madame Ziman

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Written, Directed, Produced and Photographed by

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Les Misérables

• Drama , Musical , Romance , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 25, 2012
• Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean; Russell Crowe as Javert; Anne Hathaway as Fantine; Amanda Seyfried as Cosette; Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier; Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier; Samantha Barks as Éponine; Eddie Redmayne as Marius

Home Release Date

• March 22, 2013

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

The world can be a terrible and cruel place. A miserable place, you might say. And that’s especially true in 1815.

That’s when the emaciated and hobbled Jean Valjean is finally released from his prison debts. Nearly 20 years he spent in near slavery—five for simply stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child, another 14 for trying to escape his too-cruel bonds.

Valjean’s misery doesn’t end there, though. Even after parole he must carry and present his papers in every town and hamlet his bare, half-frozen feet can carry him to. Papers that mark him as a former criminal so that none of the locals will offer him work or give shelter to the likes of him. In fact, he’s hounded and beaten like a mongrel wherever he goes. Kindness and forgiveness are but the hopes of fools.

Fortunately for Valjean there is one man who is willing to offer him a bit of both. A priest sees him shivering in a church doorway and invites him in for a meal, some bread, a glass of wine—luxuries Valjean never believed he’d see again.

In spite of this great kindness, however, the marked man can’t keep himself from stealing the priest’s few silver plates and cups. It’s a shameful, ungrateful move born out of desperation. And he should have known that a criminal with a sack of stolen silver doesn’t get far. The authorities nab him and drag him to the church, ready to beat him and send him back to the galleys.

It’s then that Valjean gets his first glimpse of heaven’s grace. Of God’s infinite mercy even in the face of sickening sin.

The priest says that he freely gave the plates and cups to the ex-convict.

“In fact, you forgot the most valuable pieces,” the priest reports, shoving two silver candlesticks into Valjean’s sack. Then the kindly churchman whispers in Valjean’s ear, “You must use this silver to become an honest man.”

“What have I done, sweet Jesus?” Valjean shouts out as he gives lyrical voice to his inner pain and shame. “Is there another way to go?” And as he prays and cries before a church altar, the answer soon comes. Yes, there is another course, that inner voice seems to say. You must be a different man … a better man.

[ Note: Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

Positive Elements

That’s exactly what Valjean does. He rips up his parole papers and uses his silver to build a business that employs the poor. And he stays ever mindful of any who may be in need. For instance, he singlehandedly rescues a man from a tipped over wagon. Later, when another man is falsely accused of being him, Valjean presents himself before the court to admit his guilt and vindicate the put-upon prisoner (even though that means he’ll likely be arrested).

One night, Valjean spots one of his former workers—a woman named Fantine who was unjustly fired by Valjean’s foreman. He rushes to her aid and eventually promises to adopt the dying woman’s daughter Cosette. He raises the girl as his daughter and sacrifices for her repeatedly, even extending his protective umbrella to cover the boy she eventually falls in love with, Marius. Indeed, he puts his life on the line to save his life. (Marius is in danger because he’s involved in a quest to free the masses from the tyranny of the ruling class, embraced by a group of young zealots who stir up a public revolution.)

The “love at first sight” infatuation between Cosette and her handsome suitor Marius eventually evolves into a more enduring commitment. But at first it’s obvious that a girl named Éponine is the one who truly loves this young man. In fact, she ultimately sacrifices her life to protect him—which is the first time he recognizes her feelings.

It’s that kind of commitment and self-sacrifice that drives the unmarried Fantine, even in her fallen state, to desperately do everything she can to support her daughter (who is being kept by another family). After getting thrown into the streets, Fantine sells all she has—her hair, her teeth … and finally her body. (More on the latter sacrifice in “Sexual Content.”)

Police inspector Javert is always in pursuit of the lawbreaking Valjean. On the face of things, he is a man dedicated to upholding every letter of the law. However, it’s soon apparent that the officer is more obsessed with his idea of carrying out levied sentences than in true justice. Certainly forgiveness is not in his vocabulary. Which makes it all the more powerful when Valjean spares his pursuer’s life at a crucial juncture, opting to replace vengeance with grace and letting him go free.

Spiritual Elements

This is a time in France when the church was a place of sought-out refuge for all. Crosses, crucifixes and religious iconography can be spotted on nearly every wall and in every room. We see a convent full of nuns, and Valjean in several churches.

When the priest invites Valjean in for a meal, he tells him, “What we have, we have to share.” The pastor prays over their meal. And when later he gives the ex-convict his silver he tells him, “I have saved your soul for God.” We see Valjean praying, looking skyward at various points after that.

Several people sing of the disappointments and agonies of life, and their hopes for God’s aid and forgiveness. Some wonder if God exists. But this operetta does not. Its lyrics and narrative theme point straight toward God’s grace, His love, His forgiveness, His mercy, His sacrifice for us all.

When Valjean steps forward to help Fantine and rescue Cosette, Fantine tells him, “Good monsieur, you come from God in heaven.” Before he dies, Valjean asks God and his daughter to forgive all his trespasses, and he states that “to love another person is to see the face of God.”

Sexual Content

Twenty or so prostitutes plying their “trade” beneath the docks expose just about as much skin as is possible in a PG-13 film, cupping their breasts, and shaking their torsos and backsides in the direction of potential customers. The famous “Lovely Ladies” song speaks of sailors “poking” the women and dropping their “anchors.” And we see quick images of some of them doing just that in the shadow-shrouded grime and filth.

Then the camera takes a bit longer watching Fantine—dressed in a hiked-up, bare-shouldered petticoat—as she and her first sexual customer consummate their transaction with realistic sexual movements. Her pain and despair over what she feels she’s forced to do is so palpable here that it’s nearly as smothering as the grimness of her surroundings and the crudeness of the act itself.

Another sex scene, this one set up to be humorous, involves a different prostitute (clothed) straddling a male customer on a bed. Again we see them moving and bouncing as another man steals a coin purse while hiding beneath them.

Picking a man’s pocket, an innkeeper named Thénardier fondles a woman’s clothed breast. His wife sits on a handsome officer’s lap and reaches her hand down toward his crotch as she sings. We see a man’s nearly naked backside. Éponine binds her breasts with a long cloth to pass for a boy. Fantine is fired by a lusting foreman who tries to seduce her. Fantine, Madame Thénardier and young Éponine, along with other women, all display too-generous amounts of their breasts by way of their tightly cinched bodices.

Violent Content

As the short-lived revolution takes place in the streets of Paris, there are a number of clashes involving cannon and rifle fire. Improvised barricades, along with their occupants, are blown up. Most victims fall down dead with a small amount of blood spatter. Some are wounded, bleeding from foreheads or upper bodies. A young woman and a 12-year-old boy are shot by soldiers, and we see them bleed to death. We see stacked corpses in the street, and the gutters run red.

Several people are punched or hit with wooden clubs. And an aggressive lout has his face scratched by an angry Fantine. Fantine also has some of her teeth removed by a barber with a crude set of clamps; we see the bloodied holes in her gums when she sings. Valjean is beaten several times by townspeople after his release from prison.

When faced with the conflict between accepting an unexplained grace and delivering an immoral “justice,” Javert reasons that he can’t live with either choice … and commits suicide. He leaps from a high bridge, and his body crashes viciously into a stone partition before sinking into the water below.

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word. One or two uses each of “h‑‑‑,” “a‑‑” and “b‑‑tard,” one of “b–ch.” Jesus’ name is misused a half-dozen times, most often by the innkeeper. God’s also comes up as exclamatory.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Valjean and the priest have wine with their dinner. Customers at a bar/inn drink some form of wine or alcohol. And young revolutionaries regularly smoke pipes and pass bottles of wine around during their planning meetings and behind their barricades.

Before prostituting herself, Fantine is given, and drinks, a small vial of a pain-killing agent.

Other Negative Elements

The garish and crude antics of the thieving innkeepers are lightly “celebrated” as humorous. They include urinating (onscreen) into a wine bottle that’s destined for a patron’s table, and grinding up rats, birds and cat tails for meat pies. Oh, and it turns out that their “care” for Cosette was something much closer to using her as a slave.

Realism and musical theater. The two don’t readily mix. In fact, musical theater is by its very nature something that purposely stretches beyond the borders of reality—adding a sparkling song to any conversation and an orchestral sweep to every tear.

Thus, in bringing Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s blockbuster musical to the world of movies, director Tom Hooper had to go to considerable lengths to try to fuse the two. Sometimes in gritty directions.

Hooper insisted, for instance, that for the sake of realism, all the show’s lyrical lines (and all of its lines are lyrical) had to be delivered live on the set rather than lip-synced to prerecorded tracks. That makes for some particularly powerful moments, most of them delivered with emotionally wrenching oomph by Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway as Valjean and Fantine. But for other “more-actor-than-singer” performers in the cast it made things challenging. The rules-obsessed Javert, for example, is a central character left almost featureless because of actor Russell Crowe’s struggles to emote and hit his high notes at the same time.

Then there are the film’s unflinching depictions of Parisian squalor in the early 1800s. From the wretched, toothless alley-bound masses to the blood-filled street gutters to the scab-covered, half-dressed prostitutes fornicating and shaking their “goods” under the grimy port docks, this Les Mis presents some seriously disquieting moments. Moments that no tune can rescue and that few families will want to stomach.

It would be grossly unfair, though, not to end this review with tribute to a story of the struggle between man’s laws and God’s grace in a fallen, heartless world. When the ill-fated Fantine is shorn, beaten and stripped of her humanity while desperately trying to care for her daughter, her song of lost dreams takes on a painful intensity rarely seen on film. And when the repeatedly maligned and beaten-down Jean Valjean falls to his knees in awe of one man’s kindness and in recognition of God’s life-changing love, we can fully and profoundly understand his tearful surprise and emotional exhilaration.

There are story threads of revenge and rescue, revolution and romance in this epic opus. But at its immersive and orchestrally soaring heart, Les Misérables makes it clear that we wretched humans can only truly find freedom by forgiving and loving one another. And we can only do that by openly accepting God’s redemption. God’s. Not just one merciful man’s. And that’s a beautiful song indeed.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Movie Review: Les Misérables (2012)

• Aaron Leggo
• Movie Reviews
• 15 responses
• --> December 28, 2012

Providing comfort.

From the page to the stage to the screen, it’s been quite the journey for Les Misérables . Once Victor Hugo’s novel, then Cameron Mackintosh’s stage musical, and now Tom Hooper’s movie, the beloved tale of lives in the gutters of 19th century France hits the big screen in musical form looking, well, almost identical to the stage version. Apparently this was one adaptation effort too many. And apparently Tom Hooper temporarily forgot that the sets and makeup were being designed for a camera and not for the back row of a stage theatre. It’s the only explanation for how garish and awful a visual experience this version of Les Misérables provides. Keeping the sung-through style of all singing all the time almost intact means that Hooper’s movie still sounds great, but it looks like a decrepit theme park gone laughably awry.

Since the music and the majority of the script are already done and such an adaptation as this needs to justify its stage-to-screen transformation, there’s no bigger or better space to find its own identity than in the visual language of the picture. So while being able to comfortably enjoy the melodious sounds of the famous tunes once more is still an enjoyable experience, it feels like such an automatically integrated pleasure that little credit can go to Hooper for anything other than the bold decision to record live vocals on set as opposed to having the actors dub their lip synched performances in post-production like most musical movies. That decision remains a fine call on Hooper’s part, as it gives the various performances the space to breathe on screen. But too bad Hooper’s camera just as quickly suffocates that space with cramped compositions that make the nearly three hour running time a stifling bore.

Using close-ups to capture emotion and action in the vast majority of the shots, Hooper completely discards any sensible or even abstractly communicable form of cinematic language and instead turns nearly every scene into an entirely hideous display of misconceived framing. Even an action as simple as a character entering a room becomes a confusing stumble marred additionally by odd editing choices. Actual action sequences involving scuffles between characters are even more disastrous, clumsily cobbling together images of movement into a sloppy blur.

Watching this all unfold over such a long period of screen time (and without the stage version’s apparently necessary intermission) is a chore under Hooper’s direction. Having enjoyed the stage version quite immensely both times I’ve seen it, I figure there’s a way to get this tale to the screen without losing nearly all of its magic along the way, but shoving the camera in every actor’s face is certainly not the way to accomplish such a feat. Letting the makeup team run rampant with ridiculous alterations that appear painfully shoddy when shot at such tight angles is another clear mistake that contributes to the overall ugliness of Les Misérables . Sure, some of the characters and situations call for some grimy prosthetics or gaudy colors, but Hooper’s team takes it too far, swapping effective subtlety for showy theatricality.

In the briefest of moments that Hooper pulls the camera away from an actor’s face, thus sparing us the sight of the low caliber makeup work for a moment, the screen is usually filled with some cheap CGI in a disconcerting attempt to cinematically depict the immensity of a situation that could not be fully executed on stage. When the movie opens and we first meet story hero Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), the grizzled prisoner is one of many men pulling a massive ship onto a dry dock with nothing but rope and pure strength. It’s a moment of spectacle captured in a manner that is unique to cinema, but the scene still suffers from hokey digital effects that denigrate the imagery. Other rare moments of the camera being pulled back suffer from blatant green screen work and lazy bird’s-eye view shots of Paris streets painted with pixels.

Searching for guidance.

Occasionally, the strength of the music breaks through Hooper’s wall of bad camera work to actually strike a chord. The songs can still stir at times and never better than during Anne Hathaway’s passionate belting of the signature song “I Dreamed a Dream.” It’s a touching scene and perhaps the one time that Hooper’s otherwise vapid framing works in an actor’s favor. Pushing Hathaway’s Fantine into one corner of the screen, isolating her, and letting her be nearly swallowed up by the surrounding darkness is actually a visual touch that the emotional scene can use. But then the technique of pushing actors against the edge of a frame is eventually overused and Hooper’s lack of visual imagination leads to lamely recycled compositions.

It seems that beyond casting the movie (Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried also star) and opting for live vocals, Hooper can’t get anything else right. His penchant for capturing every longing look, every tear, every cry with his full frame only serves to further sentimentalize the experience and his love of Dutch angles is on full comical display here. The camera is tilted so often and with so little reason that I almost expected to see the actors start slipping on the sets. It’s all so silly and this inanity undercuts the drama. The songs still sound lovely, of course, but while this Les Misérables may be music to the ears, it’s also an achingly abysmal assault on the eyes.

Tagged: France , novel adaptation , parole , redemption

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

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'Movie Review: Les Misérables (2012)' have 15 comments

December 28, 2012 @ 3:02 pm Brainload

I can’t imagine watching a movie with all sung dialogue, especially when it is sung by untrained vocalists.

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December 28, 2012 @ 3:19 pm Commander A8

It was the 19th century, Aaron. The world wasn’t exactly clean! I thought the costumes and cinematography were impeccably done.

December 28, 2012 @ 3:42 pm Dermis

I;ll never watch a musical again.

December 28, 2012 @ 4:20 pm Wantage Soup

Tough to explain, it was somehow very not right. It belongs on stage where a production like this can breathe and feed off of the audience.

December 28, 2012 @ 7:21 pm Mugget

The impact of the stage show didn’t translate over. But aside from there being one or two overly long slow sequences the movie is still a fine interpretation of the Victor Hugo story.

December 28, 2012 @ 4:34 pm Rick Olson

Holy hell. Even my friend who dragged me to this over the weekend thought 3 hours was an impossible amount of time for one sitting (plus it feels like it is 3x that.)

December 28, 2012 @ 5:13 pm Eyetooth

I can appreciate Les Mis for the sheer magnitude of trying to bring the play to the screen. I can’t appreciate the result though.

December 28, 2012 @ 5:48 pm Retrad

I am 100% confident I would have liked this if it were done without the signing dialogue.

December 28, 2012 @ 6:44 pm roguegoat

Hugh Jackman is a talented mofo. This guy can do it all.

December 29, 2012 @ 8:44 am Scannell

He is quite good on this. I can see him getting recognized for the effort. Hathaway too.

December 28, 2012 @ 9:02 pm General Disdain

Russell Crowe’s singing made me think of Pierce Brosnan’s in Mama Mia!. Neither of them can sing a lick but both make a sincere effort and sing their hearts out.

December 28, 2012 @ 9:30 pm EPark

December 28, 2012 @ 11:27 pm Laslo

If it weren’t for the ‘signing dialogue’ how would the deaf in the audience enjoy the musical? I think you meant ‘singing.’ :)

December 29, 2012 @ 3:34 pm aj.snow

I liked it better than the Liam Neeson non-singing adaptation.

January 3, 2013 @ 11:55 am Tom Valance

How many good adaptations of classic literature are there, anyway? Even the best ones, like John Huston’s often-overlooked 1987 adaptation of Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ works best a a sort of companion piece to the film. The greatest literary adaptations, in my view, are based on less-prestigious and canonized, more recent novels, like a Clockwork Orange.

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Les Misérables review – savvy cop procedural swerves into molotov mayhem

Ladj Ly’s debut feature is a police drama set in a tough Paris suburb that loses subtlety and heft as it erupts into violence

T his movie from first-time feature director Ladj Ly has one of the most striking and even glorious pre-credit sequences I can remember. It shows the cheering, screaming crowds on the streets of Paris last summer, when France had just beaten Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup . This is a seething mass of humanity with tricolours waving everywhere, boiling with joy. Finally, the director flashes up the title over the people, ecstatic in their triumph: Les Misérables.

It’s an irresistible irony and it kicks the film off with a great exhilarating jolt of humour, cynicism, energy and savvy. But what begins as a fascinatingly tough cop procedural gets less interesting when the violence begins, and it becomes a solemnly ponderous issue movie on those familiar subjects of police brutality and community divisions. The stakes are ostentatiously raised, the riot makes it looks like a war movie and it ends unconvincingly. Rather as with Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan from 2015, it’s a movie that builds to a confrontation that isn’t satisfying dramatically (although Dheepan was the Cannes Palme D’Or winner ).

The setting is the tough Montfermeil district in the east of Paris, known for its violent banlieue Les Bosquets, and also for being the location of the Thenardiers’ inn in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. Stéphane (Damien Bonnard) is a cop who has just joined the street crime unit’s day patrol, alongside Gwada (Djibril Zonga) and under the command of the notoriously cynical, reactionary and streetwise Chris (Alexis Manenti), who gives Stéphane’s debut a real Training Day feel. Their job is simply to cruise around, a visible demonstration of the law, not hesitating to chat, to establish a breezily and superficially friendly relationship with the community, and to cultivate informants – but also to go in hard against anyone they suspect for any reason: Chris loves to “frisk” attractive young women at bus stops.

Stéphane soon sees that the power structure on the streets, and within his unit, is very complex: Chris’s power over him and Gwada is maintained by exhausting stream of banter and bullying, and there is a fascinating cameo from Jeanne Balibar as their chief, who establishes a very similar flirtatious relationship with her low-ranking subordinates. Chris’s own authority outside is created via a kind of trusted local, nicknamed “The Mayor” (Steve Tientcheu) who manages the market stalls in a semi-corrupt way and is a de facto police community liaison person. But the cops must also negotiate their relationship with Salah (Almamy Kanouté), a reformed jihadi who owns a kebab shop and commands great respect with the hair-trigger young men. The police rely on Salah’s goodwill, or at any rate his impassive neutrality. In the case of a real threat of violence, the officers have “less-lethal” Flash-Ball guns that can be fired terrifyingly and deafeningly into the air.

The film’s ambient mood is initially very good: there is a terrific easy swing to the action as the cop car barrels through the streets, stopping periodically to bust someone’s balls, or for the cops to bust each other’s balls – and this is a very male world. “Like Miss France , all I want is world peace,” says Chris, jauntily. But then there is a bizarre mishap: a lion cub is stolen from a travelling circus run by Gypsy travellers who, having suspected a local boy, bust out the N-word in their confrontation with the Mayor – and it is down to our three anti-heroes to find the lion cub and save Montfermeil from a gigantic race riot. But their heavy-handed policing makes the situation very much worse, and then they realise they are being filmed by a drone belonging to a local kid.

Pre-violent normality is where this movie is at its strongest: just the day-to-day, hour-by-hour experience of being out on the streets, feeling the simmer of something that might escalate but probably won’t. After all, Paris and all France are loved up by the World Cup. A smaller-scale dramatic situation within this mesh of racial and ideological tensions might have worked better. But the colossal conflagration becomes paradoxically less exciting, and the tang of black comedy vanishes when real bloodshed appears. The director may want to confront these issues head on – the racism and violence just below the surface. Indeed, raising it above the surface is the point. But much of the drama and humanity get blitzed by the molotov cocktails.

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Les Misérables

Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him. Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him. Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him.

• Bille August
• Victor Hugo
• Rafael Yglesias
• Liam Neeson
• Geoffrey Rush
• Uma Thurman
• 223 User reviews
• 74 Critic reviews
• 65 Metascore
• 1 nomination

• Captain Beauvais

• Mother Superior

• (as Zdenék David)

• (as Edna Dore)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The town in which Jean Valjean becomes mayor is named Montreuil-sur-Mer in the book. This is a real port town in the region of Calais, across the waters from England. English readers of the book often missed this fact, as most past translations transcribed the town's name "blanked out" as "M____-sur-M__". In the movie the town is called Vigau, a name made up of the first and last syllables of Victor Hugo , the author of Les Misérables.
• Goofs When Inspector Javert is at the home of Cosette and Jean ValJean, he writes a letter and asks Cosette for an envelope which she produces for him. The type of pre folded, flap envelope that Cosette gives him would not have been invented or for commercial use in 1832, the time period of Les Miserables. Rather, correspondence would have been folded inside another sheet of paper and sealed with a wax seal and brass sealing ring or tied with a string or ribbon.

Bishop : Now don't forget, don't ever forget, you've promised to become a new man.

Jean Valjean : Promise? Wha, why are you doing this?

Bishop : Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I have bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.

• Crazy credits Special thanks to the people of Kutná Hora and Mairie De Paris.
• Connections Alternate-language version of Kundan (1955)

User reviews 223

• ThatsGoodInnit
• Feb 15, 2006
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• May 1, 1998 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• arabuloku.com
• Sony (DVD release)
• Những Người Khốn Khổ
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Mandalay Entertainment
• TriStar Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $14,096,321
• May 3, 1998

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 14 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Movie Review: ‘Les Misérables’

All musicals aren’t bright, happy, and pretty to look it.  We may think of the modern day musical as displaying a more cheerful tone like that shown in the TV show  Glee  or the films  Hairspray  or Chicago – the last musical released by Hollywood that was also elevated by Oscar buzz.  So it should be noted that Les Misérables (or Les Miz as many often call it) paints an entirely different picture.  Which in itself is one thing worth applauding right off the bat. It’s a musical that is less interested in glamour and big dance numbers and more interested in conveying the emotions of a group of struggling villagers.  It may not be the most ideal subject to ring in the joyful Christmas holiday, but if the overwhelming popularity of Cameron Mackintosh’s stage production is any indication, than the movie shouldn’t have any problem drawing the crowds.  But does the film capture the same magic as the Tony award winning show?

The film impressively opens on an elaborate shipyard in 1815.  Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is serving a 20-year imprisonment sentence for stealing some bread (Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive?) under the watchful eye of the stern policeman Javert (Russel Crowe).  Once free, Valjean sets on a journey of redemption which leads him to take under his wing Cosette – the daughter of the homeless Fantine (Anne Hathaway).  Their journey together brings about civil unrest amongst the town and forces Valjean to confront his past sins in life.

I went into the film not knowing much at all about the story; I’ve never seen a production of the show nor have I read the multi-volume book by Victor Hugo.  There are many who are quite fond of the popular musical, but there are just as many like myself who will go into the film and be forced to look and critique for the first time the original source material as well as the movie itself.  In the case of Les Misérables , both are extremely problematic.  Aside from one original song that was written for the film – “Suddenly” sung by Hugh Jackman – Tom Hooper’s adaptation carefully adapts Cameron Mackintosh’s award-winning show.  All of the showstopping numbers are included here such as “One More Day,” “On My Own,” and the most memorable number in the film “I Dreamed a Dream.”  So many of these songs are so emotionally charged that it becomes a test for the audience to withstand and give over their own emotions to the characters. Over and over again we have to witness the pained expressions and exasperated stories of the characters to the point that you begin to become numb to it all.  The music and lyrics become less like the rolling hills Jean Valjean treks across to escape his past and more like a plateau where all of the songs are sung at the same over-the-top emotional level.  Very few moments in the film peak higher than the rest, which makes for a fairly stagnant 2 hours and 37 minutes.  Some of this can be blamed on the original music and lyrics, but the performances and Hooper’s direction don’t help the situation either.  Take for example the role of Javert.  Here he is played by Russell Crowe in what seems like a casting decision that seems more inspired to appease the testosterone-driven male audience when their female partners no doubt drag them to see the film.  It’s painfully obvious he is miscast.  When not acting, Crowe has been the front man for a band for years in real life, but the style and depth of singing in Les Miz is something that Crowe never quite grasps.  His typical deep and raspy voice is stretched to such a higher octave that it becomes even more apparent how uncomfortable he is in the role.  The other issue with the character of Javert is that he isn’t portrayed as a very menacing character.  He comes across as a guy who is just doing his job and who happens to grimace a lot.  If Hooper was trying to make the character sympathetic than I feel he failed at that as well.  You more or less forget about him altogether for a large chunk of the film until his final moments on screen that culminate in one of the most odd and distracting sound design choices I have ever witnessed in a film.  Thankfully there are some powerful moments with the actors that who are properly cast that elevate some of the dragging sequences.  Jackman carries his own throughout the film and displays a wide vocal range which the role demands.  My issue with the character though is that he never felt like the main protagonist even though we are suddenly forced to remember this by the finale.  In a performance that can really only be described as awe-inspiring is Anne Hathaway.  When her gaunt face is put on display in the heart-breaking “I Dreamed a Dream,” you’d be hard-pressed to not shed a tear and feel that this sequence might be the best scene put on film in 2012.  Who almost is just as magnificent is Samantha Barks as Eponine.  The relatively unknown actress demands your attention as a poor girl who fights for the love of a young revolutionary fighter.  Her rendition of “On My Own” is one of only a few highlights and memorable songs.

My biggest issue I have with the film has less to do with the story and structure of the source material and more to do with Hooper’s artistic decisions.  A fine attention to detail has been made to create the grimy streets and decaying buildings.  Dirt is seen under the fingernails of the characters and the clothing looks as worn and dirty as the facade of the sets.  However, Danny Cohen’s cinematography rarely spotlights these exquisite details.  Aside from a few establishing shots here and there – which all seemed to have been cleverly thrown in to the trailers for the film to convey the “wide” scope of the film – much of the film is composed in tight handheld shots on the character’s faces.  This certainly works well in some of the more emotional numbers; it’s especially true in Hathaway’s breathtaking performance of “I Dreamed a Dream.”  However, Cohen never changes the tone or scope of his camerawork, which makes for a repetitive experience and seems to not really benefit the craftsmanship that the art department has put into the film.  If you blink you will miss it, but as a clever nod to the stage production origins, the tall and tawdry row houses that are seen in the background towards the later half of the film all are slightly off kilter and take on a handmade set design aesthetic.  Again, this clever little detail is never fully appreciated due to the ugly and short-sighted camera-work.  Could someone please give this film a tripod and a wide-angle lens?!  I loved that the film didn’t shy away from spotlighting the ugly side of this period; even going so far as showing young children getting shot during a battle.  The grim details could have been spotlighted more effectively if the film didn’t constantly resort to the ugly handheld photography.  Shooting a movie and relaying the story to the audience can be a tricky act.  You want to invite them into the scene and make them feel a part of the environment.  A good photographer has to realize though that if you want the intensity of the “handheld” shots to work, you have to balance them with others so that when they are on display, they have more of an impact.  The impact is lessened – and becomes quite annoying and daunting – if one style is used for almost two and a half hours.

All that being said, there are quite a number of things worth applauding in the film.  The casting of several of the leads are spot on.  Hugh Jackman captures the heart of a man searching for redemption.  Aside form Amanda Seyfried who is instantly forgettable, it is the female leads that make the biggest impact on the film. Les Misérables is a complicated affair.  I feel both torn over the film and moved by it.  The highlights at times make up for an unimpressive whole.  If I close-in on specific songs or elements of the film, I can’t help but be impressed by this adaptation.  Yet, if I take a few steps back and view the film as a whole, I begin to see the failures and notice a film whose parts don’t equate to a satisfying whole.  Maybe if I just look at the film close-up similar to the cinematography on-display in the film, I can forget about all that makes this not as magical as the hype would lead me to believe.

Movie Review: ‘THE…

Movie review: ‘john….

Michael Haffner

Somewhere between growing up on a steady diet of Saturday morning trips to the local comic-book shop, collecting an unhealthy amount of action figures, and frequent viewings of Ray Harryhausen and Hammer Horror films, came forth a nerdy boy that was torn between journalism and the arts. In high school, Michael found himself writing a movie column for the school newspaper. Yet, he went on to get a BFA in Studio Art at Webster University. When not writing about films, you can still find him discussing classic horror, collecting action figures, and reading Batman. Clearly, not much has changed.

Movie Review: CHAPPIE

Mike reviews the new Neill Blomkamp sci-fi film, CHAPPIE.

Hugh Jackman Is Ready For Action In New Image For ‘THE WOLVERINE’

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A24 Lands Rights To Michael Sarnoski’s ‘The Death Of Robin Hood’ Starring Hugh Jackman And Jodie Comer From Lyrical Media And RPC – Cannes Market

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In a competitive situation, A24 has acquired U.S. rights to Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood , which will star Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer . It hails from Lyrical Media and Ryder Picture Company.

Lyrical is fully financing the film. Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett will produce under their Ryder Picture Company banner alongside Alexander Black for Lyrical. Lyrical’s Jon Rosenberg and Natalie Sellers will executive produce with Rama Gottumukkala, Sarnoski and Hugh Jackman.

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The film follows an aging Robin Hood grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder who finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation. Production on the film is set to begin in February 2025.

Lyrical Media, Ryder Picture Company and A24 recently partnered on Adam Wingard’s action thriller Onslaught . Lyrical and RPC entered into a first-look deal last week to produce and finance RPC films, genre agnostic with budgets of $10 million and up. The deal is for two years with an option to extend to a third.

This marks the second project with A24 and Comer, who is set to star in a series adaptation of Jen Beagin’s Sex Therapy and the novel Big Swiss for HBO with A24 and Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries producing. 

Also in Cannes, A24 this week acquired U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down , starring Kirsten Dunst, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton.

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‘Traitors’ Host Alan Cumming on the Cheekiest Character of His Career — Himself — and Why He Doesn’t Watch ‘Real Housewives’

Awards Circuit Podcast: Alan Cumming is having the best time playing "Alan Cumming." Also on this episode, the Roundtable talks category confusion

By Michael Schneider

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Variety Editor at Large

• ‘Traitors’ Host Alan Cumming on the Cheekiest Character of His Career — Himself — and Why He Doesn’t Watch ‘Real Housewives’ 18 hours ago
• Emmys: If ‘Shogun’ Is a Drama and ‘True Detective’ Isn’t, Does the Limited Series Category Make Sense Anymore? 20 hours ago
• Daytime Emmy Hosts Will Once Again Be ‘Entertainment Tonight’ Anchors Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner (EXCLUSIVE) 21 hours ago

Alan Cumming isn’t much of a reality TV fan — so as host of Peacock’s “ The Traitors ,” he enjoys being a bit blind to the baggage that many of the contestants carry to the Scottish Highlands.

“When I go to do ‘The Traitors , I have a crash course in reality TV stars, and random people,” he tells Variety ‘s Awards Circuit Podcast . “I don’t know who many of the people are. Because I juust don’t watch those shows. And actually I quite like it, just to meet the people on those their own terms — rather than that with all the history they bring.”

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There’s plenty to talk about when it comes to “The Traitors,” including the outlandish version of “Alan Cumming” the real Alan Cumming plays on the show. He also discusses the impact he hopes his wardrobe on “The Traitors” might have on the greater population, and the creepy scene between “Alan” and his trusty assistant “Fergus” that ultimately didn’t make the Season 2 cut. Additionally, we discuss the disappointing cancellation of “Schmigadoon!” and whether he’ll be doing anything else with “The Good Wife” universe. Listen below!

Cumming is having a blast as host of “The Traitors,” which allows him to both give these big, outlandish speeches while also bringing a bit of improv to his interactions with the players.

“Chewing the scenery,” he says. “I really love that. It’s kind of dichotomy of absolute improvise, being in the moment, and then these big sort of set pieces. I can’t tell you how much I love this show. It’s such a left field thing for me to have done at this stage in my career. I think that’s also interesting for me, as the kind of performer I am, to be sort of subverting the notion of a host as well. Because I’m obviously hosting the show, but I’m also doing it in character. I’ve hosted things before like documentaries and shows. But nothing like this. This is very much a very different person to who actually I am.”

Then there’s the fashion, which Cumming credits to stylist Sam Spector. “I have always, in shoots and a lot of characters I’ve played, been quite outlandish, and I purposefully toy with sort of gender norms,” Cumming says. “I’m quite good at looking androgynous. I realized that if I go the whole hog and go drag, I’m not a very attractive lady. But I’m good at androgyny. I think that’s actually a really interesting thing about the show. In the midst of this big reality competition show, there’s someone who is bending the fashion, cultural mores of what a man should be wearing. And that, to me, is a really positive thing. Hopefully, when people go out into the world and see someone in the street who’s a bit more non-binary in their fashion tastes, they won’t be so surprised, or they’ll they’ll enjoy it more.”

As for Apple TV+’s cancellation of “Schmigadoon!,” Cumming says he was excited to return for Season 3, which was going to focus on the large-scale musicals of the 1980s and 1990s like “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables” and more. Cumming says his role was to play a mashup of the Phantom of the Opera and a “Les Mis” Jean Valjean-style character. “It would have been a hoot,” he says. “In a way, it’s actually lovely that it didn’t run itself into the ground, but it would have been nice to do one more.”

As for whether we might see his “The Good Wife” character Eli Gold pop up again, Cumming notes that it’s always a possibility — because he wasn’t killed off in “The Good Fight,” as originally planned. “They said they wanted to kill me off. And I thought great, that’s what I’ll do. But the network or the studio, but didn’t want me to be killed off. One of the reasons they didn’t want to kill me is that, what if we want you to do a spin off? So it went from killing me off to within about three days to talking about spin off.. but nothing ever came of it.”

Also on this episode, the Roundtable discusses more of the last-minute category shuffles going on as Emmy season submissions are in, and campaigning shifts into high gear.

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Outside the Trump Trial: Sock Puppets, Sex Pills and Smutty Balloons

The city serves up a cast of supporting characters who flock to a park outside Manhattan Criminal Court, where Donald Trump is on trial, and grab the spotlight.

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By Nate Schweber

Follow our live coverage of Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.

The trial of former President Donald J. Trump has drawn the eyes of the world to the dim hallways and dingy courtrooms inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. Outside is New York at its most colorful.

Gawkers, demonstrators, politicians and hustlers gather in Collect Pond Park, a square plot of cement and trees across Centre Street from the courthouse’s front doors.

Although the crowds have been smaller than the police prepared for, each day has featured someone creating a spectacle. There have been arrests and a shocking self-immolation . Republican officials have recently used the park to praise the defendant at news conferences.

Here are voices of some characters who have traveled from near and far to see and be seen.

The Puppet Masters

As an antidote to the intensity inside the courtroom, amateur puppeteers turned up with doppelgängers of the defendant early on the morning of May 9.

As she stood in line waiting to attend the court proceedings, Rose Brennan, 63, of Bernardsville, N.J., had her left hand inside Donald J. Puppet, an orange athletic sock with button eyes and yellow yarn hair.

Ms. Brennan, who is retired after working in the software industry, made her creation say: “ You’re the puppet! ”

“He wanted to come and support his brother puppet,” Ms. Brennan said.

A few feet away sat Guy Jacobson, 60, a former lawyer from Manhattan. With him was a fuzzy stuffed pig with a red tie and the same color palette as Donald J. Puppet.

Unlike the former president, Mr. Jacobson said, “This one is cuter, less fat, more intelligent and doesn’t talk so much.”

The Pill Pusher

David Webber, the self-proclaimed most successful sex-capsule salesman in Idaho, Utah and Nevada, hoped in vain to have a moment with the defendant.

“I drove all the way here to meet Trump,” shouted Mr. Webber, 68, who had traveled from his home in Las Vegas via Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.

He said on April 25 that he believed Mr. Trump would invite him to speak at rallies. Mr. Webber, who said he was a former pool shark, cocaine dealer and professional skier, thinks he is a better campaigner than the former president.

“He rambles,” Mr. Webber said. “He tells the same old jokes to the same old people. It’s getting boring.” (He added quickly that he was still Mr. Trump’s “biggest fan.”)

Mr. Webber was looking for exposure to promote his self-published memoir, and to help him sell his sex capsules, like Kinky Kong, which he said had the same ingredients as Viagra without the impurities.

“I take a couple sex capsules every week,” he said, adding that he had altered his diet accordingly.

“If you eat a lot of onions, you don’t have a heart attack,” he said. “So I eat a lot of onions every day.”

The Showman

The most swaggering attendee of Mr. Trump’s trial during its second week was Greg Gold, a lawyer from Denver who was on a cross-country sightseeing tour.

“I came from Key West to here,” Mr. Gold said, handing out a gold-colored metal business card.

Mr. Gold, 54, wore a fringed leather jacket decorated with beads, a straw cowboy hat with a leather band and scuffed Western boots. Tying the outfit together were distressed jeans and a long scarf of blue and yellow, for Ukraine.

He said the trial was the biggest spectacle in town.

“This is better entertainment than ‘Les Misérables,’” he said. “And cheaper, too.”

The Provocateur

Shortly after noon on Thursday, a U-Haul box truck stopped in front of the courthouse, and a man in a Make America Great Again hat flung out dozens of pink, phallus-shaped Mylar balloons. Many were stamped with a photograph of Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney.

The man was Dion Cini, 55, of Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay neighborhood, a trial fixture who waves giant flags that say “Trump or Death.” A social media biography identifies him as a “professional provocateur.”

One of the balloons flew into Collect Pond Park, where Nadine Seiler had a different take. A house cleaner from Waldorf, Md., who has ridden buses all night once a week to demonstrate outside the trial, Ms. Seiler, 59, always wears a portrait of Mr. Bragg.

As she held one of the balloons, she said it resembled Mr. Trump. She fastened the deflating balloon to her handmade overhead sign that read “Convict Trump Already.”

That afternoon, the former president’s S.U.V. rolled by and his face passed feet from the flapping end of the cartoonishly pornographic balloon attached to Ms. Seiler’s sign. Mr. Trump grimaced, and the S.U.V. accelerated.

The Strangers

Those attending the trial on the morning of May 6 were greeted by the unsettling sight of two young women in porcelain masks standing motionless with a young man between them, his head apparently sewn into a burlap sack. With them were three young men in Make America Great Again hats.

When approached and questioned, one of the women would say only: “We’re the strangers.”

It turned out to be a promotion for the coming horror movie “The Strangers: Chapter 1.”

The movie’s synopsis: “After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin.”

After standing around menacingly in one of the most densely populated parts of America, the six people left together.

The Loyalist

Shuping Lu belongs to the most dedicated group of demonstrators: Chinese expatriates, mostly women, who support Mr. Trump and have maintained their vigil every day the trial is in session.

“We found each other,” Ms. Lu, 60, said. “It feels good, because it otherwise feels very isolated.”

Ms. Lu, who moved to New York from Beijing in the early 1990s, said that she and the roughly dozen other expatriates detect an echo of communism behind Mr. Trump’s prosecution. She said she felt compassion for the former president, whom she sees as someone trying to entertain and be liked who is spurned by millions.

“When he was president and they were laughing at him I thought: Why do you have to be so hard on him? He’s trying to please you, like a little kid,” said Ms. Lu, who first voted for Mr. Trump in 2020. “He wants to be affirmed.”

She and the others stand in Collect Pond Park, sharing chocolates and hard-boiled eggs. They wave flags that say “Trump Won” and wear pink hats that say “Women for Trump.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the group’s members gathered along Worth Street to cheer for Mr. Trump’s departing motorcade from behind a new large sign they had held a fund-raiser to buy. It read, “Chinese Americans Fight for Trump.”

Dressed stylishly and standing with her mouth closed, Sylvia Achee let her handbag-shaped portable speaker communicate her message.

From it pulsed the song “Liars Must Go,” by D-Achee , her husband. He was so upset about Mr. Trump’s election in 2016 that he wrote the song, a mid-tempo track with a chorus that rhymes “45th POTUS” and “bogus.”

“Hopefully it’ll embed in people’s souls,” explained Ms. Achee, who works in advertising. “Music can creep up on you. We want this to grow.”

Standing near her one morning in late April was Joe Reilly, 56, a disabled former construction worker who lives in Manhattan. Mr. Reilly, who was there with his dog, Leroy, wore a Make America Great Again hat and waved a large “Trump or Death” flag.

Perhaps without knowing it, he waved it in time to Ms. Achee’s music.

Kaja Andric contributed reporting.

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

The defense rested its case after Donald Trump declined to take the stand  at his own criminal trial. Closing arguments will take place on May 28.

The testimony of Robert Costello, the main witness for the defense, focused on his relationship with Michael Cohen , Trump’s former fixer and the prosecution’s star witness.

How are conservative and liberal media outlets covering Justice Juan Merchan, the judge in the trial? Here’s a look .

More on the Trump Investigations

Case Tracker:  Trump is facing multiple criminal cases related to his business and political activities. Follow the latest developments .

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know, and what we don’t know .

Election Interference Cases: In Arizona , Georgia , Michigan  and Nevada , several allies of Trump are facing charges  related to efforts to keep him in power after he lost in 2020.

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here  to get the latest news and analysis  on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.