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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.

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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).

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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.

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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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Parents' guide to, les miserables.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 50 Reviews
• Kids Say 192 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Excellent film adaptation of gritty, heartbreaking musical.

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…

Why Age 14+?

Almost all the dialogue is sung, with very little profanity, but there are a cou

Some bawdy scenes/references, especially in a few scenes that feature prostitute

Much of the second half of the film focuses on the June Rebellion, a Paris upri

Several scenes feature people drinking wine, including one set at an inn that's

Any Positive Content?

The story's ultimate take-away is about the redemptive power of faith and love -

Although Jean Valjean is a fugitive who breaks parole and spends much of the fil

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.

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."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

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).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness 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.

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.

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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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (50)
• Kids say (192)

Based on 50 parent reviews

Incredible film

Sung through musical, 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 - Golden Globe Award Winner
• Last updated : September 6, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

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• DVD & Streaming

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

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

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 & Romantic 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 & 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 Noteworthy 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

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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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Movie Review

The Wretched Lift Their Voices

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By Manohla Dargis

• Dec. 24, 2012

In the first long act of “Les Misérables,” Anne Hathaway opens her mouth, and the agony, passion and violence that have decorously idled in the background of this all-singing, all-suffering pop opera pour out. It’s a gusher! She’s playing Fantine, the factory worker turned prostitute turned martyr, and singing the showstopping “I Dreamed a Dream,” her gaunt face splotched red and brown. The artful grunge layered onto the cast can be a distraction, as you imagine assistant dirt wranglers anxiously hovering off camera. Ms. Hathaway, though, holds you rapt with raw, trembling emotion. She devours the song, the scene, the movie, and turns her astonishing, cavernous mouth into a vision of the void.

The director Tom Hooper can be a maddening busybody behind the camera, but this is one number in which he doesn’t try to upstage his performers. Maybe he was worried that Ms. Hathaway would wolf him down too. Whatever the case, he keeps it relatively simple. Moving the camera slightly with her — she lurches somewhat out of frame at one point, suggesting a violent, existential wrenching — he shoots the song in a head-and-shoulder close-up, with the background blurred. By that point, with her dignity and most of her pretty hair gone, Fantine has fallen as far as she can. She has become one of the abject castaways of the musical’s title, a wretched of the earth.

Written by Alain Boublil and the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg (with English-language lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer ), the musical “Les Misérables” is of course one really big show, perhaps the biggest and certainly one of the longest-running. Its Web site hints at its reach : Since the English-language version was first performed in London in 1985, it has been translated into 21 languages, performed in 43 countries, won almost 100 awards (Tony, Grammy) and been seen by more than 60 million people. In 1996 Hong Kong mourners sang “Do You Hear the People Sing” to memorialize Tiananmen Square . In 2009 the awkward duckling Susan Boyle became a swan and a world brand with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” on the television show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Somewhere amid the grime, power ballads and surging strings there is also Victor Hugo , whose monumental 1862 humanistic novel, “Les Misérables,” was, along with the musical “Oliver!,” Mr. Boublil’s original inspiration. Like the show, Mr. Hooper’s movie opens in 1815 and closes shortly after the quashed June Rebellion of 1832, boiling the story down to a pair of intertwined relationships.

The first pivots on the antagonism of a onetime prison guard, now inspector, Javert (Russell Crowe, strained) toward a former convict, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman, earnest); the second involves the love-at-first-sight swooning between Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and Marius (Eddie Redmayne), a revolutionary firebrand. As a child, Cosette was rescued by Valjean from her caretakers, the Thénardiers (the energetic Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, who nicely stir, and stink up, the air).

Part of the tug of “Les Misérables” is that it recounts a familiar, reassuring story of oppression, liberation and redemption, complete with period costumes and tear-yanking songs. Georges Sand apparently felt that there was too much Christianity in Hugo’s novel; Mr. Hooper seems to have felt that there wasn’t enough in the musical and, using his camera like a Magic Marker, repeatedly underlines the religious themes that are already narratively and lyrically manifest. In the first number (“Look Down”), set against a digitally enhanced, visibly artificial port, Valjean helps haul an enormous ship into a dock. Dressed mainly in cardinal red, the prisoners pull on ropes, while singing during a lashing rain, with Javert glaring down at them. (And, yes, he will fall.)

By the time the scene ends, Valjean hasn’t just been handed his release papers after 19 years as a prisoner, he has also become a Christ figure, hoisting a preposterously large wooden pole on to his shoulder. Mr. Hooper’s maximalist approach is evident the very moment the scene begins — the camera swooping, as waves and music crash — setting an overblown tone that rarely quiets. His work in this passage, from the roller-coaster moves of the cameras to the loud incidental noise that muffles the lyrics, undermines his actors and begins to push the musical from spectacle toward bloat. Mr. Jackman suffers the most from Mr. Hooper’s approach, as when Valjean paces up and down a hallway while delivering “What Have I Done,” a to-and-fro that witlessly, needlessly, literalizes the character’s internal struggle.

Anatomy of a Scene: 'Les Misérables'

Tom hooper, the director of “les misérables,” narrates a scene from the film..

Mr. Hooper’s decision to shoot the singing live, as opposed to having the singers lip-sync recorded songs, as has been customary in movie musicals since the 1930s, yields benefits. That’s especially the case with Ms. Hathaway, Mr. Redmayne and Daniel Huttlestone, a scene-stealer who plays the Thénardiers’ young son. (This isn’t the first contemporary musical to resurrect the practice of live singing, which was used for both “At Long Last Love,” directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and “ The Commitments ,” directed by Alan Parker.) It’s touching, watching performers like Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Redmayne giving it their all, complete with quavering chins and straining tendons. Mr. Redmayne, an appealing actor with a freckled face built for wonder, at times seems to be stretching his long body to hit his higher notes.

Mr. Redmayne’s sincerity complements Ms. Seyfried’s old-fashioned trilling and her wide-eyed appearance, even if their romance lacks spark. Then again, so does the movie. Song after song, as relationships and rebellion bloom, you wait in vain for the movie to, as well, and for the filmmaking to rise to the occasion of both its source material and its hard-working performers.

As he showed in “The King’s Speech” and in the television series “John Adams,” Mr. Hooper can be very good with actors. But his inability to leave any lily ungilded — to direct a scene without tilting or hurtling or throwing the camera around — is bludgeoning and deadly. By the grand finale, when tout le monde is waving the French tricolor in victory, you may instead be raising the white flag in exhausted defeat.

“Les Misérables” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Gun death, poverty, face boils and revolution.

An earlier version of this review included an erroneous link to information about another film. The correct link provides information about “The Commitments” (1991), not “Commitments” (2001).

A on Tuesday about “Les Misérables” misspelled, at one point, the name of the character played by Amanda Seyfried. As the review correctly noted elsewhere, she is Cosette, not Cossette. The review also misidentified a Peter Bogdanovich film that uses live singing, as does “Les Misérables.” It is “At Long Last Love,” not “They All Laughed.” And the review referred imprecisely to the customary way that songs have been filmed in movie musicals since the 1930s. Actors have typically lip-synced to recorded songs; it has not been the case that everything was recorded in postproduction.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [email protected] . Learn more

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You are here: Home » Featured » Movie Review Les Miserables

Movie Review Les Miserables

I was finally convinced by my insistent teenagers that I must see Les Miserables .  I had seen the play on Broadway, as well as three earlier film versions, so it wasn’t the story I was resisting, just the fact that the latest version is so popular. There must be some Church bashing, offending of traditional morality, or just plain banalization of Victor Hugo’s eternal themes of repentance, redemption, and sacrifice, I feared. I did not want to see a beautiful story deconstructed by some egotistic director.

I humbly admit I was wrong. From the breathtaking opening scene, the soaring music and ethereal cinematography held my emotions captive, causing me to laugh and even weep.  I was not alone. The theatre was full of people — from seniors to college-age kids — who stayed behind after the credits, engaged in passionate discussions of the film’s themes, the advantages of operatic style, and even the idea of redemptive love.

The poignant acting of Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean) Amanda Seyfried (Cosette as an adult) and Russell Crowe (Javert) was the perfect complement to the passionate score. Only Amanda Seyfried and her younger counterpart Isabelle Allen (young Cosette) have the angelic voices required by the demanding songs, but that didn’t diminish the film’s commanding impact. It rather heightened it as I was moved by the raw emotions in voices, not their beauty. Jean Valjean was in agony for much of the film, and if his voice had the range and power of Pavarotti it might have been distracting, even comical. Did it ever bother you that Mimi in La Boheme sings a full-bodied aria just before succumbing to consumption? Save the operatic voices for the CD, the actors’ singing was sensitive to the story and kept this viewer engrossed more than any previous version.

Les Miserables was beautiful in an even more vital manner. Never in recent films has the Catholic Church’s role in the life of an individual been so poetically depicted. The genial bishop who evoked St Jean Vianney, the feminine grace of the wimpled nuns, the splendor of the chapels of Jean Valjean’s conversion and final departure into heaven: the Catholic Church’s important role in the conversion of a bitter convict to a saint is one which is drawing even the cynical to the theatres. We have experienced God’s grace; we know it when we see it, and there is nothing more rewarding than to see a true artist’s depiction of it on screen.

The screenwriters, composers, and directors not only didn’t hinder Hugo’s original intent, they magnified it using the best of special effects, cinematography, and orchestration. That is what art is meant to be, raising one’s mind and heart toward heaven, or, in other words, prayer. Les Miserables reaches that height at times and I left the theatre comparing my own attitude towards my loved ones to Jean Valjeans’. In other words, were there more films of the beauty and power of Les Miserables there might be more Jean Valjeans in the world.

The moral impact of the film rests upon stark contrast between the noble and ignoble: depictions of sexuality, immodesty, disturbing violence and vulgarity. This is not a film for children or young adolescents. Older teens will find this film inspiring. It’s the must see of the year.

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The Internet Will Never Let Russell Crowe Forget Les Miserables

Director Tom Hooper had just won an Oscar for “The King’s Speech” and now he had his sights set on an even more technically ambitious undertaking, a big-screen, live-singing version of the beloved musical war horse “ Les Misérables .” Casting Broadway veteran Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, the show’s tortured, noble reformed criminal, was a no-brainer. But who would play Javert, the man obsessed with bringing Prisoner 24601 to justice? Hooper had an idea.

“I thought, for this story to work, you need a guy who could get the better of [Jackman],” Hooper told Time . “It had to be a very formidable actor, and Russell immediately sprung to mind. I mean, in Wolverine versus Gladiator, I’d probably put my bet on Gladiator! I knew vaguely that he had a band, but then I discovered he started in musical theater, in Sydney, in things like ‘Rocky Horror.’ So I met him and he couldn’t have been more excited about being in it. And he worked harder than anyone to get vocally fit for this.”

But then audiences saw the movie and wondered why Russell Crowe ’s voice sounded so terrible.

The quality of a person’s singing can be fiercely debated. Is Bob Dylan a terrible singer because he has a “whiny” voice? Is Mariah Carey ’s voice bad because it’s “showy”? What we consider “good” singing varies from listener to listener — like a voice itself, our response is unique to us, revealing something ineffable about ourselves. 

But even if such judgments are highly subjective, most critics agreed that Crowe was all wrong for “Les Mis.” The Austin Chronicle ’s Kimberley Jones was especially scathing, noting , “When ‘ Les Misérables ’ is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it’s usually because Russell Crowe has opened his mouth. … Crowe, whose professional singing career topped out with vanity band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, is a sorry (and toady) simulacrum for the raging Javert; he sings standout solo ‘Stars’ like it’s a lullaby, the words ‘I will never rest’ coming off not like the mission statement of an obsessed lawman, but rather the peevish sulk of an insomniac.”

Opening on Christmas Day in 2012, “Les Misérables” divided critics and audiences alike, with some appreciating the intimate, amped-up intensity Hooper lent the story, while others finding it garish, loud and hyperbolic. I thought both arguments were valid, but I ultimately got swept away by its sheer too-much-ness, happily run over by its freight-train lack of dramatic subtlety or emotional nuance. But even I couldn’t defend Crowe, although it wasn’t necessarily his singing — it was his overall one-note glumness, which seemed to suggest he didn’t feel comfortable in the role. 

But despite mixed reviews, the film was a blockbuster — this was back when studios weren’t ashamed to advertise the fact that their musicals were, in fact, musicals — and went on to win three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway . Nonetheless, all through that awards season, a running joke was how horrible Crowe was in “Les Mis.” The public mocking got so bad that journalists asked Hooper about his decision to cast the “ Gladiator ” star for the iconic role. His response wasn’t entirely persuasive.

“We auditioned hundreds of hundreds of people — opera singers, musical actors, film actors, actors who couldn’t sing or could sing,” Hooper said in early 2013 . “The truth is, you need people who can hold a movie camera. To find brilliant film actors who are brilliant singers — there are so few choices. I ultimately stand by what Russell did. I love him in the film. I embraced a kind of raw attitude to the vocals that is unusual in the modern age. I tried Auto-Tune, composites of different takes. But I ended up using only the original live take. Otherwise, there was a loss of realism, integrity and emotional vulnerability.”

In a sense, Hooper was acknowledging that, yes, Crowe was not a great singer in the traditional sense — especially being onscreen opposite Jackman, who is. But Hooper’s answer also seemed to suggest that he did his best to work around Crowe’s limitations. Crowe himself responded to some of the online criticism, replying to a Twitter follower who asked him if he’d seen Adam Lambert ’s knocks on the film. (“Les Mis: Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers. … And I do think it was cool they were singing live- but with that cast, they should have studio recorded and sweetened the vocals.”) “I don’t disagree with Adam,” Crowe tweeted back , “sure it could have been sweetened, Hooper wanted it raw and real, that’s how it is.” 

But negativity from Lambert is one thing — having one of your own co-stars rip you on national television is quite another. At the Golden Globes in January of 2013, Sacha Baron Cohen (who played Thénardier) joked from the stage , “Russell Crowe had four months of singing lessons — that was money well spent.” He then grimaced, drawing huge laughs from the crowd. Clearly, it was open season on Crowe.

His indignity carried over to the actual Oscars that year, when he joined many of his “Les Mis” cast members, including Baron Cohen, to perform “One Day More.” Crowe didn’t embarrass himself, but it was clear that he was struggling mightily, his low, booming voice lacking the power or beauty of his colleagues’. The quality of this YouTube video isn’t great, but it sufficiently captures Crowe’s level of strain.

Crowe has admitted he “wasn’t really prepared” for such a demanding role. (Before he signed on to “Les Misérables,” his biggest hesitation was not really connecting with the character .) But, in retrospect, the world’s appalled reaction to his singing wasn’t occurring in a vacuum. A backlash against Crowe had been brewing for a while. 

After winning an Oscar for “Gladiator,” a period in which he’d become one of cinema’s most celebrated rising stars thanks to acclaimed films such as “ L.A. Confidential ” and “ The Insider ,” Crowe began to experience a commercial slump. Subsequent movies like “ Body of Lies ” and “Robin Hood” failed to be sizable hits, and then there were off-screen incidents — such as a 2005 altercation in which he threw a phone at a hotel concierge — that made him seem like another out-of-control Hollywood hothead. In addition, as mentioned in Jones’ review, he was also involved in the mediocre rock group 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, which only added to the impression that Crowe was a self-indulgent movie star. 

So as audiences got ready for “Les Misérables,” they brought plenty of negative baggage with them into the theater. If you listen to 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, you’ll notice that Crowe has a perfectly serviceable, tender voice. But it doesn’t suggest he has the pipes to portray Javert. To illustrate the point, let’s look at two YouTube videos, the first put together by Thomas H. Smith, who collects a group of different performers playing Javert over the years, mashing up their version of the character’s indelible “Stars.”

And, now, let’s look at Crowe’s rendition:

A different take, to be sure, and not necessarily a horrendous one. But although Crowe tapped into the character’s misery, his whispery rendition felt one-note. The stiffness that had started to permeate his other performances at the time — what once seemed heroically stoic about him now hardening into a granite inexpressiveness — was all too prominent in “Les Mis.” There’s a case to be made that Crowe’s far-from-majestic singing helped add pathos and humanity to Javert but, ultimately, it wasn’t the quality of his singing as much as it was the sameness of the performance that ultimately doomed it.

Occasionally, Crowe would show the spark that initially made him such an exciting actor — he’s the ideal straight man to Ryan Gosling in “ The Nice Guys ” — but its appearance was dispiritingly less evident going forward. Still, he continued to defend his turn in “Les Misérables.” In 2021, he said , “The whole aspect of singing live, which is very different from any other musical ever made… the fact that every single person is singing every take live on this, the benefit that that brings is that you’re not restricted emotionally.”

If you need proof that Crowe’s performance remains a punchline, look no further than the amount of articles that have sprung up in subsequent years arguing that, actually, it’s really great. One of the most persuasive was written in 2020 by Angie Han in Polygon , arguing that his voice’s imperfections gave the portrayal its poignance. 

“[A] strange choice doesn’t mean a bad choice,” she wrote . “The rugged quality of Crowe’s voice makes Javert a little more vulnerable from the start of the film — he’s intimidating more because he’s a big guy with rough edges, and less because he possesses the kind of laser precision that [Broadway actor Terrence] Mann brings to the part. It makes Javert’s eventual crisis and breakdown particularly compelling. Crowe acquits himself best in ‘Javert’s Suicide,’ as the tremulous quality of his voice when he’s pushed to the edges of his range works in harmony with his character’s uncertainty — and to his credit, he nails his high notes.”

As someone who appreciates all kinds of singers, I do love a voice that’s a little less polished. Give me Dylan, Neil Young , Elvis Costello — the humanness of their emoting connects with me on a visceral level. But Crowe’s monochromatic turn — both in terms of his acting and his singing — didn’t suggest authenticity as much as it did someone in over their head. I applaud stars who take big risks — and Crowe was most certainly risking a lot — but sometimes, the gambit doesn’t pay off. He wasn’t worth mocking, but I don’t think he’s worth cheering, either.

“Les Misérables” returns to theaters this weekend, and no doubt multiplexes will be filled with theater kids, musical nerds and everybody else who’s been dying to see that flawed, impassioned film on the big screen again — or for the first time. And I bet a lot of those viewers will insist that Crowe got a bad rap for his singing. 

I’m down with that assessment. Hardly wretched, he has perhaps never been so naked on screen as he was in “Les Misérables,” his Javert a man consumed with a sense of duty, his faulty larynx an indication of the deep emotional scars underneath the character’s gruff exterior. It’s not a great performance, but it’s a brave, honest one. Russell Crowe has rarely done anything so bold since, mostly signing up for bloated franchises and forgettable B-movies. I don’t love him in “Les Mis,” but I admire the attempt — in the film, you see him giving it his all. I wish he did so more often.

Tim Grierson

Tim Grierson is the Senior U.S. Critic for  Screen International . 

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‘Les Miserables’ Movie Review

“Now life has killed the dream I dreamed,” sings Fantine (Anne Hathaway) who’s become a prostitute after being fired from the factory she worked at to support her daughter in the big screen film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical, Les Miserables .

Victor Hugo’s classic story remains the same, taking place in 19th Century France and focusing on Jean Valjean (played by Hugh Jackman ), a convict released from prison after serving almost 20 years for stealing a small loaf of bread so his sister’s child wouldn’t starve. After receiving kindness from a priest who takes him in when no one else would and finding God, Valjean decides to break parole to create a new life for himself while being a decent citizen. He finds himself pursued by Javert (Russell Crowe), a ruthless policemen who was one of the guards at the prison where Jean Valjean was kept.

Spanning 10 years, the film shows how Jean Valjean makes a horrible mistake while trying to hide in plain sight from Javert, allowing the foremen at his factory to fire Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a lovely young woman who’s hated by her co-workers for being so attractive. Desperate to support her daughter, Fantine becomes a lady of the night and after almost getting arrested by Javert, meets Jean Valjean and tells him how he has ruined her and, subsequently, her daughter’s lives.

Determined to right this terrible wrong, Jean Valjean tells the now dying Fantine he will look after and care for her daughter Cosette. But his promise becomes extremely complicated when Javert realizes that the alias Jean has been using is fake and both Jean and Cosette are forced to go on the run.

Jumping ahead eight years, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) is now a proper young lady still unaware that her surrogate father is a criminal in hiding. She’s fallen head over heels for a young student named Marius (Eddie Redmayne), who has joined a rebellion against the current government of France. Trying to keep Cosette safe, Jean Valjean once again finds himself avoiding Javert who’s in charge of stopping the rebellion.

Les Miserables is a brash, dramatic musical adventure that has two great stand-out performances. Anne Hathaway delivers the best performance of her career as Fantine, the desperate, hopeless, doomed young single mother life seems determined to destroy. She captures all the heartbreak and sorrow Fantine feels. She also does a wonderful job singing one of the best songs in the film: “I Dreamed a Dream.” She deserves an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress and will most likely get it, despite limited screen time.

Samantha Barks, whose known on the stage for her performance in the musical, steals every scene she’s in as Eponine, the daughter of the corrupt innkeepers who’s hopelessly in love with Marius who in turn only has eyes for Cosette. She’s an absolute natural on film and her rendition of the song “On My Own” is a show-stopper.

Hugh Jackman delivers a solid performance as Jean Valjean but doesn’t have the vocal range needed for the more powerful songs in the musical. This is never more evident than when he attempts to sing “Bring Him Home” and comes up short. Still, he is a believable Jean Valjean.

Not faring so well is Russell Crowe, terribly miscast as the obsessed, vicious policeman Javert. Not only can he not sing a note, but he never really delivers in his performance. He never shows any real feeling of hatred or compulsion to capture Jean Valjean. It’s key that the audience understand that without following through with the law, Javert cannot exist. He must obey the law or die. Therefore to constantly keep coming into contact with an escaped fugitive who he keeps failing to capture, Crowe needs to show how this is eating away at Javert. Sadly, he doesn’t pull it off.

The costumes and sets are all extremely effective in bringing 19th-century France back to life on the big screen and the film’s cinematography is beautiful.

Lavish and epic, Les Miserables is a sweeping, wonderfully-acted movie musical which will entertain fans of the Broadway version and hopefully have film fans intrigued to go and seek out the original and far superior 1935 film version of the story starring Frederic March and Charles Laughton.

Les Miserables opens in theaters on December 25, 2012 and is rated PG-13 for suggestive and sexual material, violence, and thematic elements.

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Les misérables

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Les Misérables transcends its unwieldy story with compelling ideas and an infectious energy that boils over during a thrilling final act.

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Les Misérables

In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who, for decades, has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision c... Read all In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who, for decades, has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives forever. In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who, for decades, has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives forever.

• William Nicholson
• Alain Boublil
• Claude-Michel Schönberg
• Hugh Jackman
• Russell Crowe
• Anne Hathaway
• 1K User reviews
• 510 Critic reviews
• 63 Metascore
• 85 wins & 177 nominations total

Top cast 99+

• Jean Valjean

• Madame Thénardier

• (as David Hawley)

• Mairie Officer

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Fantine's assault by a rejected customer is based on an actual incident from Victor Hugo 's life that resulted in Fantine's creation: he was on his way to his editor's office when he encountered a young man harassing a prostitute. When she rejected his advances, he shoved a handful of snow down her dress and shoved her to the ground. When she defended herself with her fists, he immediately called the police to arrest his "assailant". Hugo was a minor celebrity at the time, and spoke up on the woman's behalf when the police arrived, and was able to have her set free. Hugo said he was horrified by the unfairness of the woman's situation, and began to imagine that she might have children depending on her, and thus Fantine appeared in his mind.
• Goofs When Javert gets the letter from Paris informing him that "Valjean" has been caught, the tricolor French republican flag is seen hanging in the street. But this scene takes place in 1823, during the Bourbon restoration. During this time (1815-30) the tricolor was not in use.

Jean Valjean : To love another person is to see the face of God.

• Crazy credits The film opens without any opening credits. The title of the film is stated just before the closing credits.
• Alternate versions On the 2023 4K Blu-ray release of the film, the centennial version of the 2012 Universal Pictures logo is replaced with the regular 2013 version of it without the "100th anniversary" tagline.
• Connections Featured in Chelsea Lately: Episode #6.189 (2012)
• Soundtracks Look Down Written by Herbert Kretzmer , Claude-Michel Schönberg , and Alain Boublil Performed by Daniel Huttlestone , Eddie Redmayne , Killian Donnelly , Fra Fee , Aaron Tveit & Chorus

User reviews 1K

• Mar 12, 2022
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• December 25, 2012 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official YouTube
• Los miserables
• Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, England, UK
• Universal Pictures
• Working Title Films
• Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $61,000,000 (estimated)
• $149,260,140
• $27,281,735
• Dec 30, 2012
• $442,757,529

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 38 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• Dolby Atmos

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