Patman

I found the camerawork truly distracting when it was during singing close-ups, mainly because the actors drift in and out of focus (Hugh Jackman, I'm looking at you!). Most of that criticism has to be laid on the doorsteps of Tom Hooper. Russell Crowe is more miss than hit for his singing as Javert, his singing just stood out in a bad way for this production. Hugh Jackman's singing voice didn't really grow on me for his turn as Jean Valjean. Anne Hathaway had some really good, powerful moments in her limited screen time as Fantine. Kind of disliked how Fantine's daughter Cosette was basically used as a plot device, not as a human character throughout the story. The "love triangle" between Cosette, Marius and Eponine was just odd. Eddie Redmayne (Marius) has a Kermit the Frog singing voice, it distracted me. Amanda Seyfried (young adult Cosette) had sort of a trilly singing voice, not overloaded with vibratto, but enough to be cognizant of it. Samantha Barks seemed to be out of place as Eponine because her voice was pretty solid. Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen felt like characters in a different movie when their characters show up in the film, tonally they were in a very different place.

The script's pacing felt overly long, and I doubt I'll ever want to see this film version of "Les Miserables" ever again. Without Hathaway's and Barks' performances, I'd call it "Les Unmemorables".

I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.

Drexl

That was an interesting article, and he makes good points about how the way a film is shot affects how we perceive it as viewers.

However, I find it funny that he makes these criticisms as his annoying "Hulk" persona in all capital letters. Has he considered that his gimmick makes his articles harder to read and affects how we perceive HIS material?

Dan

Seriously, THIS. The guy is obviously pretty smart. He needs to dump the whole HULK thing so we can actually read his shit without wanting to punch him in the face.

RichC2

I mistakenly called the "camera work" "camera movement" in the original Les Miserables thread, but that was something I noticed in both The King's Speech and the trailer for Les Miserables, imo it doesn't fit and is why I was so bothered by The King's Speech winning Best Director over Social Network.

Also who pissed off the Patman script?

slop101

I sort of agree.

But he does explain why he does it pretty well right here.

Still, I think he's now gone way past that persona that he needs to retire it soon.

Roybq

Yeah, I gave up trying to read the article because it was giving me a headache.

silentbob007

It's pretty funny that Samantha Barks would stand out because of her singing ... she's the one they actually pulled from the Les Miserables stage ranks (and plays Eponine in the 25th Anniversary concert). Lots of people like to bag on both Jackman and Crowe for their singing and, while there may be a point to be made there, without Hollywood stars, this movie does not get made.

Falc04

great film...truly impressed. Hope it does well come Oscar night.

Giles

um, Jackman has sung both on Broadway and London's West End before, this isn't new for him:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fS0NPYH_pGw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YaU8pXPWBqE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(sorry the audio is a bit crappy)

silentbob007

um, I know, but he was not pulled from a stage version of Les Mis, which is what my point was in terms of having a voice matched for the material. Personally, I don't have a problem with him as JVJ, though I definitely think his "Bring him Home" was fairly weak compared to Colm Wilkinson or Alfie Boe.

Solid Snake

Can they act as well as Jackman?

Decker

"Bring Him Home" is such a tough song to sing, and it really looked like Jackman was struggling like crazy to make it through the song without his voice cracking; he barely even acknowledged Marius there. That was one of those moments when you know Tom Hooper made the wrong decision to film this live : Trying to convincingly act on film and make it through an incredibly hard song in one cut was asking too much from him (or anyone really).

Giles

oh come on, don't be that naive, to say that only a male singer/actor that had been cast in a stage version of Les Mis is suitable for the film version seems a bit biased, granted Colm and Alfie's vocal range is a bit broader than Hugh's, he certainly has the stage acting/musical training cred to his name.

I think Colm's acting has only been stage bound, and given the fact that he had to act/sing to the folk in the rafters, stage and film acting are two completely different things.

Mad Dawg

I just can't disagree more with the notion that Hooper was wrong to film with live singing. Having a polished, pre-recorded soundtrack lip-synced by actors hoping to capture the necessary emotion would have been a huge mistake.

Solid Snake

My problem w/ most musicals is that when they start singing...the actions don't ever really match up to the audio well enough for me. In this one...they were together and you saw it.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Havent seen it yet but how does it compare to the Neeson/Rush version?

Solid Snake

well there is a lot more singing in this one.

Decker

A lot more singing in this version.

Solid Snake

....Beat you to it.

Decker

I loved the idea when I first heard it -- it makes sense and of course that's how it's performed on the stage. But I wasn't thrilled with the results. Most of it was just fine, but when it didn't connect for me (Bring Him Home, Stars especially) it just frustrated me because you just know that it could have been better and worked better. As I said in the original thread about this movie : there's a reason that they haven't done a live singing musical (excluding At Long Last Love) in sixty years, and it's not just the lack of earpiece technology.
We've all seen movie musicals and the ones that we loved had pre-recorded singing. It's not a problem that needed to be fixed.
Camera placement, now that's a problem that still needs to be solved for some.

Decker

By less than a minute, I might add.

RichC2

...I would totally watch a Rush version of Les Mis. YYZ-edition.

movielib

Neeson's and Rush's singing stunk.

bdshort

I saw it tonight and absolutely loved it. I think the decision to use live singing was a good one, as it worked in most all cases. I was worried about the "close ups" people were complaining about, but that didn't really bother me. Russell Crowe is no Philip Quast, but I thought he held his own as Javert. I don't know why but it seemed like his singing improved from the beginning.
One song I was sort of disappointed with was "Master of the House". It felt kind of flat and lifeless, and not the fun, crowd pleasing show stopper it is in the stage version. I know movies need to dial things down a bit because they don't have to play to the back of the balcony, but if there's one song that needs to be super loud and boisterous and over the top, it's this one.

The only character I have issues with is Cossette, but it's the same issue as it is in the play. Like Patman mentioned, she's basically there as a plot device and doesn't have the emotional depth everyone else has. So I'll give credit to Eddie Redmayne for making believe in his feelings for her.

I give this a strong 4.5/5

Giles

and oddly the over-editing of the ample footage didn't help it in the slightest either.

I saw this again the other day, but in DCP/7.1 and it became suddenly clear why this was nominated for 'sound mixing' - the 35mm print I saw prior sounded very very wrong. For reasons unknown, the music sounded compressed and buried under the voices, on the lossless audio version (with the extra two rear channels of sound) - the difference was night and day - it was simply gorgeous and revealed a dynamic range that brought the more grandiose songs: 'One Day More' and 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' to heightened emotional effect.