About a week ago, my future husband T and I Les Misérables. One word: ah-maz-ing.
Les Misérables, a musical based on a French novel, tells the story of Jean Valjean who goes from being a prisoner in a slave camp to being a parole violator who is constantly on the run from Javert and a business man who seeks to help those in need. The most notable person Valjean aids is Fantine who has lost everything and become a prostitute to support her daughter Cosette. While Fantine is on her death bed, Valjean promises to find Cosette and care for her as his own. The story continues with Valjean living under a different name due to his parole violation and Valjean becoming a family to young Cosette. Some time passes and Cosette meets the love her life who is joining a revolution against the French government. Valjean, who is still running from his past life and Javert, offers aid to the revolution and to Cosette's soul mate.
Prior to seeing this wonderful movie, I knew nothing about the storyline. In fact, my fiance described it simply as an opera based during the French revolution. I was most excited about it being a musical as I love, love, love music and theatre-based movies. As we sat in the theatre waiting for the movie to start, I was slightly worried that I didn't know enough about the plot to really enjoy the movie. Luckily, I was wrong!
Stars of the movie include Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. Of the four, Amanda Seyfriend is the only one I recall hearing sing. But they were fantastic! I was highly impressed by their singing talents and am disappointed when I read reviews that state otherwise. I've since read that the songs were not pre-recorded and dubbed over the film, but instead were filmed live which I find incredibly impressive.
Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe play opposite each other in many scenes. I loved them together and feel they both did an excellent job of portraying their respective characters.
Anne Hathaway, who is winning all sorts of awards and nominations for her role, was stunning. Her transformation from a gainfully employed woman to a poor and destitute prostitue was incredible. She did such a wonderful job expressing the sadness and misery her character was certainly feeling.
Amanda Seyfried is no stranger to musicals having starred in Mama Mia! While Les Misérables was a great undertaking for anyone, Amanda Seyfriend did an amazing job and was definitely an asset to the film. I love her voice and most movies she's been in and am glad this was no different.
Other notable actors include Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. This is the first movie I've seen Sacha Baron Cohen in. To be honest, I typically avoid movies he in as I always think of Borat and how every clip I saw looked terrible. But together, he and Helena Bonham Carter, brought life to the characaters they played and did an incredible job.
Overall, I would highly recommend this movie. T loved it as did my aunt, uncle and cousins who saw it with us. Although the movie ran longer than I would prefer (two hours, forty-five minutes) and there were some heavily emotional moments, I loved it and will definitely be seeing it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment