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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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PHOTOS: ‘Les Miserables’: Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman Pose for THR

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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The Movie “Les Miserables” by Tom Hooper Essay (Movie Review)

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Recently, I have watched Tom Hooper’s adapted version of the famous musical Les Miserables produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The world premiere of Les Miserables took place at Leicester Square, London, in 2012 and became increasingly popular among Hugo’s admirers (Hooper). The film lasts for 158 minutes, including three acts divided into multiple scenes. Notably, the film received numerous prestigious awards such as BAFTA and Golden Globe and received favorable reviews (Hooper). This paper aims to provide the overall impression of the play based on Aristotle’s six elements of tragedy.

In Les Miserables , Hooper managed to portray the story of Jean Valjean, a former prisoner who has spent 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He breaks parole to transform his life and gets hunted by a policeman named Javert. After a release, the criminal eventually reforms to become a prosperous industrialist and mayor.

Hugh Jackman, starring as the ex-prisoner Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe’s character Javert play significant roles in the film. Their heroes’ storylines remain constant throughout the 17 years of the film’s plot, during which Valjean develops as a personality, while Javert’s inflexibility is his distinctive feature. Notably, both actors played their parts incredibly, highlighting their characters’ best and worst traits.

The central theme presented in Hooper’s version of Les Miserables is concerned with the social issues of urban France, the country showing all the best and the worst qualities of humanity. Besides, the director concentrated on the redemptive power of love and faith portrayed through Valjean’s acts of atonement throughout the movie.

The play’s diction presented a delicate combination of music, lyrics, and dialogues in between performances. The everyday agenda embodied in the songs allowed for deeper feelings to be expressed. Play’s language seemed not sophisticated, rather adapted to the modern English standards.

All emotions in the film were conveyed entirely in the songs performed live on set. Hooper’s commitment to live performance added much stress onset; yet, it allowed for accurate perception of characters’ feelings. The vocal performances provided an extra vibrancy and spontaneity that was palpable. Besides, composer Claude-Michel Schoenberg created additional music for specific scenes, including the battles.

Remarkably, the costume designer Paco Delgado’s worked on more than two thousand costumes. His approach to each character’s traits helped create sophisticated costume designs. Indeed, technical artists’ work paid off since they could recreate specific streets of Paris and convey the French atmosphere of the 19th century.

In conclusion, Hooper’s version of Les Miserables is increasingly popular due to the production team’s work. To my mind, the director, actors, music composer, designer, and other crew members have successfully managed to create a masterpiece.

Les Miserables. Directed by Tom Hooper, performance by Hugh Jackman, Universal Pictures, 2012.

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IvyPanda. (2022, July 20). The Movie "Les Miserables" by Tom Hooper. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-movie-les-miserables-by-tom-hooper/

"The Movie "Les Miserables" by Tom Hooper." IvyPanda , 20 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-movie-les-miserables-by-tom-hooper/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Movie "Les Miserables" by Tom Hooper'. 20 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "The Movie "Les Miserables" by Tom Hooper." July 20, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-movie-les-miserables-by-tom-hooper/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Movie "Les Miserables" by Tom Hooper." July 20, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-movie-les-miserables-by-tom-hooper/.

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Singing the desire for a better world

I loved les misérables as a teenager. now it’s back in philly, and i want to rediscover it..

In my eighth-grade English class in 1985, Ms. Emeigh handed each of us a thick book, the first of four novels we’d read, discuss, and write about through the year. The book was a classic, she explained, by a French writer named Victor Hugo: Les Misérables. My classmates uttered a collective groan at the weight of the book. I felt a quiet thrill as I scanned the back cover; by that point in junior high, I knew to keep my enthusiasm at bay.

What would you do , Ms. Emeigh asked, if you were starving and had nothing to eat? Would you steal a single loaf of bread if that was the only way to feed your family?

She invited us to discuss this idea further at Brown Bag it with Books!, a weekly lunchtime gathering in her classroom. The majority of kids who showed up came to escape cafeteria chaos: the food fights, the fist fights. I dreaded the very end of the lunch period most: when the assistant principal called up students who were in trouble to form a line “to get whacked.” At that time, public corporal punishment was the norm in our central Pennsylvania school.

Worlds within worlds

Ms. Emeigh was a teacher who opened worlds inside of worlds: a classroom could become a haven. By giving me Les Misérables , she offered me escape to the world of early 19th-century France. I spent hours immersed in the struggle of Jean Valjean, the man who stole that bread, and of desperate Fantine, a mother who lost her child and then her life. I imagined lovesick Eponine and her scheming innkeeper father and the merciful bishop who upon Valjean’s release from nineteen years of doing hard labor gave him another chance.

If given a choice, I would have stayed in Ms. Emeigh’s room all day, discussing any book long after I’d finished my peanut butter sandwich and carrot sticks.

The life of a theater kid

Two years later, in 1987, Les Misérables became a hot show, opening on Broadway after its European debut. That was the year my older sister graduated high school and left for college in Philadelphia. I was in 10th grade and spent most of my free time acting in community theater.

In the fall of 1988, my parents, younger brother, and I planned to visit my sister at Penn. A touring production of Les Misérables was coming to Philadelphia and my mom—a musical theater lover—got us Friday night tickets to see it. I don’t know which of us was more excited. But we quickly faced a dilemma: I had gotten a lead in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest and the director had a tantrum worthy of Waiting for Guffman when I told him I’d have to miss our Friday night rehearsal for my family’s trip.

My thoughtful mom came to the rescue. She decided I was old enough to stay behind on Friday, take the train by myself to Philly, and join the family. And she bought me a ticket to the Saturday night show.

A sacred adventure

It’s hard to capture the level of adventure this experience held for me. I had never been on an Amtrak train before and spent hours looking out the window and dreaming. When I arrived in Philadelphia, I took a cab from 30th Street Station to the hotel where my parents and brother were staying. They raved about Les Mis . We ate dinner with my sister and then my dad walked me to the show.

I had never sat in a theater by myself, next to strangers. I liked it. The curtains opened and there were the real live actors, bringing the characters from the page to three-dimensional life. I had memorized the entire score, listening to it over and over again on a cassette tape that got tangled in my Walkman. Watching the first scene, when the bishop forgives Valjean, my tears began. I cried through the entire show, even when I was laughing through the innkeeper’s raucous “Master of the House.”

Theater can be a sanctuary. A play can be a sacred experience. I felt it that night, the magic of experiencing Hugo’s words come to life.

I walked outside, wondering how to find a cab to go back to the hotel. I sang to myself from “On My Own”: “Remember, the truth that once was spoken/to love another person is to see the face of God…”

Everyone who has loved and grieved

At Emerson College, where I studied theater and creative writing, my friends were all the kids who were happy when the English teacher gave out thick books, who found comfort in community theater.

One of my closest friends loved Les Mis with equal or more vigor than I did. We would walk through the Boston Commons taking turns dramatically singing the “Confrontation” scene between Valjean and policeman Javert: “Valjean, at last, we see each other plain … Monsieur le Mayor, you’ll wear a different chain!”

When I learned that Les Mis would be returning to Philly (landing at the Academy of Music August 27-September 8, 2024) and that I could see it again after all these years, my first instinct was to call my friend, but I don’t have any way to contact him now. He is a lost friend for reasons that I would never have been able to fathom on those cold winter afternoons, when we sang our way home.

My friend and I shared a desire for the world to be better than it is: different, just, equitable. We didn’t have words then to express that desire, but we sang it every day in the Les Mis score. I didn’t know then that the heartbreak of Hugo’s characters is the heartbreak of anyone who has loved and grieved, that heartbreak I feel now thinking of my lost friend.

A risky rendezvous?

It is a risky thing, to return to a work of art that you love so deeply, a play that has played such a significant role in your coming-of-age, one that held so much of your longing. A work of art that was one of your closest companions.

My goal is to watch the production of Les Mis coming to Philadelphia this week with as much of a beginner’s mind as possible. To view it with fresh eyes, new perspective. Over the last 35 years, I’ve realized that our society is not closer to figuring out a way for every person to be fed, for justice to be meted out with compassion and a desire for repair.

As I started to write this essay, I couldn’t wait any longer. I put on the soundtrack from the original Broadway production, streaming it from my laptop. Even before the overture was finished, I felt my tears. I started to sing.

What, When, Where

Les Misérables. Broadway Production at Ensemble Arts Philly Broadway Series. $21-$150. August 27-September 8, 2024 at the Kimmel Cultural Campus’s Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St, Philadelphia. EnsembleArtsPhilly.org .

Accessibility

The Academy of Music is an ADA-compliant venue. Please contact Ensemble Arts directly to discuss specific details for navigating its historic buildings: call Audience Services at (215) 893-1999 or reach out by email .

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A critical review of ‘Les Miserables’

Eye on the Oscars 2013: Best Picture

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Expectations were sky high for Tom Hooper’s film version of “ Les Miserables ,” adapted from the Broadway hit by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. The epic blockbuster, clocking in at almost three hours, had some raving.

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“Besides being a feast for the eyes and ears, ‘Les Miserables’ overflows with humor, heartbreak, rousing action and ravishing romance. Damn the imperfections, it’s perfectly marvelous,” said Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers.

Popular on Variety

Though apt to recognize the film’s beauty, several critics found the end product draining.

“But even when they’re dabbing away tears during the last of the big numbers, they might wonder whether they’re feeling less uplifted than run over,” said Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis agreed that “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.”

Critics were likewise split over Hooper’s decision to use actors’ live singing.

Hornaday believed the decision lent “a welcome air of spontaneity and excitement.” Travers agreed that “the risk pays off. The singing … sometimes sounds raw and roughed up, which is all to the good. It sure as hell brings out the best in the actors.”

But some found it distracting, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle, who wrote “one measure of just how unmanned Jackman is by this restraint is that Russell Crowe…often sounds no worse than Jackman does, and Crowe can’t sing to save his life.”

The only thing that united critics was Anne Hathaway’s showstopping performance as doomed Fantine singing “I Dreamed a Dream,” with Dargis writing that she “devours the song, the scene, the movie,” and Hornaday calling it “a melodramatic tour de force of vocal and physical expression.”

The New York Post’s Lou Lumenick agreed that “it’s worth seeing the movie for Hathaway alone.”

Variety said: “For all its expected highs, the adaptation has been managed with more gusto than grace; at the end of the day, this impassioned epic too often topples beneath the weight of its own grandiosity.” — Justin Chang

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• France’s Oscar-Nominated <i>Les Misérables</i> Is an Invigorating Tale of Poverty and Revolt

France’s Oscar-Nominated Les Misérables Is an Invigorating Tale of Poverty and Revolt

S ometimes the value of a movie lies not in telling you a story you’ve never heard, but in the way it draws you, for an hour or two, deeply into someone else’s world. That’s the power of Les Misérables, the debut feature from Mali-born French filmmaker Ladj Ly, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year and has received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film. You’ve surely seen pictures that are sort of like Les Misérables. And yet there’s nothing exactly like it: It has a bracing, melancholy energy all its own.

Les Misérables is set in the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil, where sections of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel is set, though the movie’s connection to that earlier story reaches even deeper than that. This Les Misérables is also a story of poverty, injustice and revolt, intensified by the hostility of people who have strong feelings about who belongs in a country and who doesn’t, a conflict that’s overheating not just in France but in countries worldwide.

Ly’s story—co-written with Giordano Gederlini and one of the movie’s stars, Alexis Manenti—traces the relationship between a trio of cops and the people it’s their job to protect, though their protection is more often just plain old policing. Chris (Manenti)—he’s known in the neighborhood as the “Pink Pig,” a nickname he actually relishes—is the aggressive bruiser who feels his job gives him carte blanche; he thinks nothing of attempting to grope a teenage girl under the auspices of frisking her for drugs. His longtime partner, Gwada (Djibril Zonga), mostly goes along, though sometimes you catch a flicker of disapproval or wariness in his glance. Gwada is black, and we learn that he actually grew up in the neighborhood, but that doesn’t make him an insider there. If anything, the locals view him as an outsider, a traitor who has forgotten how hard it is for them to just get by.

Chris and Gwada have a new partner, Corporal Ruiz (Damien Bonnard), who has just moved to the city from the provinces for personal reasons. He’s reserved and watchful, and from the start he’s mistrustful of his new partners—particularly Chris—but he knows loyalty to them is part of the gig. Les Misérables mostly takes place on Ruiz’s first day on the job, but it’s not really about him: He’s just the filter through which we see the whirl of life on these neighborhood streets, a place where citizens look after each other because they know no one else will.

The streets are filled with kids, playing basketball or using pieces of cardboard as makeshift sleds or just running around, getting their ya-yas out while doing harm to no one. They take a break from their self-imposed mayhem to flock around a local vendor, asking for Snickers and other treats. When he realizes they don’t have enough money to pay, he shoos them off, and they complain loudly: “But we’ve been playing sports! We’re hungry!” They know their righteous indignation won’t sway him, but they try it anyway.

One of these kids is Issa (Issa Perica, in a taut, beautifully understated performance), a boy of 11 or so whose body is all angles and elbows, his hair shaped into an unfashionable point. He’s a fairly recent immigrant, and we first meet him—though we’ve seen him earlier—after he’s hauled into the police station for stealing a bunch of live chickens. The parent or caretaker who comes to pick him up berates him angrily. Ruiz takes it all in—he’s a parent himself—and you can see him wondering what this kid’s life is like, and if he’ll be OK, but he knows so much of that is out of his control.

Meanwhile, Chris swaggers through the neighborhood as if he’s its prince. Ruiz tries to go along, but a clash is inevitable. There’s an accident—or an event that’s presented as an accident—and a scramble to cover it. Ruiz learns more about his beat, and his partners, on his first day than he probably cares to know, but it’s all stuff he needs to know.

You’ve seen this story before, roughly, if you’ve seen Training Day or The Wire or any number of shows or movies about newbie cops learning the ropes in tough neighborhoods, where kids often walk a fine line between going bad or turning out OK. But the flavor of Ly’s movie is distinctive even so: He’s so in tune with the vibe of the street that you understand immediately what the stakes are. The movie’s opening is the key to the film, though you don’t know it until the end: We see a bunch of ebullient neighborhood kids, including Issa, boarding a train to the center of Paris, celebrating France’s World Cup victory. They wave flags in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. They belt out the Marseillaise. In nations all over the world, people who believe they know best are asking every newcomer, Do you belong here? Who said you could come? Les Misérables is a response, indirect yet definitive, to the question of who belongs and who doesn’t. These kids singing the Marseillaise in front of the Arc de Triomphe aren’t asking the question, Who is really French? They’re answering it.

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Les miserables.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 48 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 .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (48)
• Kids say (192)

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 - Golden Globe Award Winner
• Last updated : August 8, 2024

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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).

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• FILM REVIEWS

LES MISÉRABLES (2012)

• by Michael G. McDunnah
• December 26, 2012

Spoiler Level: I'm reviewing an adaptation of a 30-year-old musical based on a 150-year-old book. Nonetheless, I'll do what I can. 

Les Misérables, the new film version of the highly successful stage musical, is nearly three hours long.

It feels longer.

Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, on which the musical was based, is about 1,400 pages long.

The film feels longer.

The story covered by Les Misérables takes place over a period of roughly 17 years.

The experience of watching it all play out feels—you guessed it—even longer still.

Mere weeks ago, I dreamed a dream in which The Hobbit would be the most unendurable Hell I would face in a movie theater this year, but director Tom Hooper's overly literal, excessively bombastic, painfully tone-deaf film has killed that dream—along with three hours of my life, my love of musicals, and a good portion of my will to live.

There are dreams that cannot be, there are storms we cannot weather, and there are films—like Les Misérables— we simply cannot endure. 

For the record, I went into Les Misérables without a love for either version of the source material, but with an open mind: I haven't seen the stage version, I've never listened to the cast album, and—though I probably pretended differently back in my lit major days—I've never even read the novel. However—unlike my partner, The Unenthusiastic Critic (who, about 20 minutes into this film, would have been rummaging in her purse for something sharp with which to puncture her own eardrums)—I happen to like musicals. I was secretly looking forward to Les Misérables, and mentally reserving a spot on my forthcoming Best of the Year list in case it turned out to be as good as it looked.

(Spoiler alert: Les Misérables will not be on my Best of the Year list.)

Let us dispense with plot summary, for the uninitiated. The film opens with Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), prisoner #24601 in the port prison of Bange de Toulon, under the watchful eye of stern Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). Valjean has served 19 years of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew, but Javert has no sympathy for him: "You will starve again unless you learn the meaning of the law," Javert says—or sings, rather. (The aforementioned uninitiated should be warned: no one talks in Les Misérables: they only sing…for 157 musical minutes.) Valjean is released on parole, but with a criminal conviction hanging around his neck he can't get an honest job, so quickly resorts back to crime, stealing silver from a church that has given him shelter. When the kindly bishop (Colm Williamson—who originated the role of Jean Valjean in the English-language stage version) forgives this crime and makes a gift of the silver to the starving man, it allows Valjean to turn his life around and set up a new identity as a successful businessman.

It is as a business owner that he encounters Fantine (Anne Hathaway), who is wrongfully fired from her job as a seamstress in Valjean's factory and forced into a life of prostitution to feed her young daughter Cosette (played as a child by Isabelle Allen). Feeling responsible for this turn of affairs, Valjean decides to commit to providing Cosette a better life, buying her away from the reprehensible innkeepers (played by Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen) with whom she has been living. Unfortunately, around this same time, Valjean also runs into Javert, who recognizes him and forces him to flee with Cosette and go into hiding once again.

Several years later, Cosette (now played by Amanda Seyfried) meets and falls instantly in love with Marius (Eddie Redmayne), a well-born young man who has sworn off the bourgeoisie and taken up with revolutionary forces. With the ubiquitous Javert in pursuit of both Valjean and the revolutionaries—he is apparently the only cop in France, after all—the final act plays out against the Paris Uprising of 1832, with much swooning and pathos and waving of banners.

Oh, and they all sing everything: did I mention?

Sigh. Look, as I said, this was my first encounter with Les Misérables , and—if the movie is anything to go on—I don't care for the musical. I don't like the plot, which is all over the place, and yet must take place in about one square block of Paris in order to explain all the coincidental meetings. I don't like the script, which takes terrible, cliché-ridden dialogue and makes it worse by forcing it into contrived rhymes. ( "You're the friend who has brought me here/Thanks to you I am one with the gods and Heaven is near!" ) Mostly, I don't like the music, which is repetitive and laborious. (I also have to admit that, in general, I'm not a fan of musicals without dialogue: hearing someone sing a showstopper about their feelings is one thing, but hearing someone sing linking dialogue about arranging a carriage is something else altogether.)

But I would almost certainly have enjoyed the musical more on stage, or in a puppet theater, or in any version that was not directed by Tom Hooper. The history of stage musicals on film is not a proud one, and there's a reason for that: the delicate theatrical alchemy that makes us accept the conceit of characters who sing their thoughts aloud is difficult to reconcile with the matter-of-factness of film, and Les Misérables doesn't even come close. Hooper won an Academy Award for the harmless, crowd-pleasing The King's Speech a couple of years ago, but his limited talents are sorely tested by the scale and challenge of this material. There is absolutely no subtlety or imagination in his direction—he is the unquestioned master of the medium close-up, but this is a highly dubious honor—except when he decides to swoop the camera around, or cant it at an arch angle, for no apparent reason. Some of the larger set pieces, like the uprising in the third act, were no doubt huge and spectacular on stage, but here Hooper combines the limited, stage-bound blocking of a theatrical piece with an attempt at cinematic scale (with poorly used computer-generated backgrounds and crowds). The result makes these "big" scenes seem small and oddly trivial on-screen.

Much has already been made of Hooper's decision to have the actors all sing their roles as they act them (as opposed to the traditional method of pre-recording the songs and then lip-syncing the performances). It's a lovely idea: by marrying the music to the acting in this way, it should—in theory—allow for capturing the honest immediacy of a stage performance with the intimacy and closeness that only film can achieve. However, it does his cast no favors here. Note to future directors of screen musicals: take Hooper's lovely idea, and employ it with actors who can actually sing.

With two exceptions—which we'll discuss below—everyone struggles painfully here. Oddly enough, for my money, stage veteran Jackman actually comes out the worst: he seems to have the hardest time acting while trying to stay on key, and doesn't quite know what to do with his face while he makes the attempt. (It would help, no doubt, if Hooper didn't have the camera shoved right up Jackman's nose during the big numbers.) Russell Crowe, on the other hand, can't really sing at all, but maintains a certain dignity in the attempt: he does less, and comes across the better for it. Redmayne and Seyfried have passable voices, but neither of these rather bland characters inspired the love in me that they seem to inspire in each other. Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen—who are supposed to be the "comic relief"—are in a completely different movie from everyone else. (I don't know what horrible, cartoonish movie that is, exactly—perhaps a pantomime version of "Mr. Punch"—but it's one I expect to play in my nightmares for years to come.)

So, the pleasant exceptions: the first is Samantha Barks, who has the regrettably small role of Éponine, the daughter of the odious innkeepers who harbors an unrequited love for Marius. A 22-year-old stage actress making her film debut, Barks played the role in London, and her brief scenes in the second half of the film—and her touching rendition of one of the better songs, "On My Own"—demonstrates to the rest of the cast what a tremendous difference it makes when you actually know what you're doing.  Every time she appeared, I kept wishing that the story had been about Éponine, or else that Barks could have somehow played most of the other female roles in the film.

The other exception, of course—as you have no doubt already heard—is Anne Hathaway, who is simply stunning in another all-too-brief role. Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is not only the best musical number—by a country mile—but is three minutes or so of some of the best acting I've seen all year. I expect some viewers will find her performance a little too emotional—even melodramatic—but there's really no other way to go with this material, and if Hathaway's rendition seems out of place here it's only because it's a world apart from the shallow, surface-level pastiche that is the rest of the film. It's the perfect example of what the live-singing experiment should have yielded: a raw, intimate, heartbreaking performance that could only be achieved in the film version of a musical. It helps that Hooper—for basically the only time in his career—has the good sense to just put the camera on her and leave it the hell alone: he clearly realized that the best thing he could do here was to sit back and capture this magic, without interfering, and then put it in the trailer and try to convince the world that the rest of the movie was as good.

But the rest of the movie is nowhere near as good, and—since this song comes about half an hour in—it's an early triumph that makes the long slog through the rest of a horrible film that much worse in comparison. Three good minutes out of 157 do not make for a good return on investment, so I can't recommend the movie, but try to catch the scene when someone inevitably posts it to YouTube. Heartfelt, honest, and staggeringly moving, it's the perfect example of what Les Misérables could have been, and should have been, and yet so tragically fails to be.

Michael G. McDunnah

Leave a comment, 6 thoughts on “les misérables (2012)”.

I like the Ogden Nash version…

"Jean Valjean, no evil-doer, He got chased through the sewer. The end."

I am going to suggest a Grease and Grease 2 evening for you and N. Your description of Anne Hathaway's movie-stealing reminds me very much of Pfieffer's amazing "Cool Rider" (see avatar). Though, I suppose you will now say you have never seen Grease 2.

I've never seen Grease 2. (And if I were being honest, I'd admit I'm not that big a fan of Grease . But then you'd lose respect for me. So I won't admit that.)

And to think I used to allow you to tell me to put my whiskey in an opaque container. Pfft.

I have a bias: I like musicals that are good stories, which happen to have songs: Grease is one of those shows that's a collection of songs with a bare bones plot to make it a story. It's not a show, it's a greatest hits album.

Hi but isnt les mis a fantastic story? i saw it tonight, cried about 10 times, and the voices are not bad at all, its the SONGS that are pretty mediocre. There are about 2 great songs, the rest had me wonder why they are singing at all, it takes longer to say what they need to say, so it was a bit tedious sometimes, but other than some dodgy focus pulling, I thought it was a great production and I, an atheist, was touched by it. Mark

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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: A Historian’s Review

By Julia Gossard in 40 Acres , Special on January 16, 2013 at 11:37 am | 2 Comments

Les Misérables is an emotional tour de force with eight Oscar nominations, but how does the film stack up in terms of history? UT history doctoral student Julia Gossard explains in a review for Not Even Past .

Overall, Les Misérables is an intense, moving, and beautiful film, and I highly suggest that you add it to your watch list. But despite its many triumphs, it lacks historical context and may leave viewers scratching their heads about basic plot elements.

The film follows the life of paroled criminal, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) in his struggle for redemption, from 1815 to the June Rebellion of 1832.  After breaking parole, Valjean is chased by Police Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) for nearly fifteen years.  Under one of his assumed identities as a factory owner and mayor of Montreuil, Valjean meets Fantine (Anne Hathaway), his former factory worker and now a prostitute who is dying. Valjean promises Fantine that he will rescue her child, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) from her life with a cruel innkeeper, Thénardier (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his wife, Madame Thénardier (Helena Bonham Carter), and raise Cosette as his own.  Escaping from Javert twice, Valjean and Cosette move to Paris where Cosette falls in love with Marius (Eddie Redmayne), a French Republican and member of the “Friends of the ABC.”  Marius, along with the leader of the “Friends of the ABC,” Enjolras (Aaron Tveit), plan a rebellion against Louis Philippe’s monarchy that will coincide with General Lamarque’s funeral.  This rebellion, known as the June Rebellion of 1832, is chronicled in the last half of the film, with Marius, Valjean, and Javert all becoming involved.

Director Tom Hooper’s decision to focus on the actors’ faces and upper bodies in lieu of wider shots that could establish the Parisian setting was particularly striking in comparison to other musicals. When you attend a musical in a stage theater, you typically focus on the cast as a whole, their interactions with each other, and the setting, but rarely on the facial expressions of the actors since they are far away. By employing so many close-ups, Hooper brings attention away from the setting, 19th-century Paris, and places it onto the individual characters.

Shockingly, the only time the viewer may really realize that Les Misérables is set in Paris is during Javert’s two solos when he teeters precariously on the ledge of the Palais de Justice in front of Notre Dame and later on a bridge high above the Seine. Even then, the viewer only sees a quick and blurred view of Paris at night. Since much of Victor Hugo’s original novel describes the deteriorating living conditions of the poor in the increasingly industrial and dirty Paris, this was disappointing. I would have preferred to see Paris as a character itself, as it is in the novel, instead of the out-of-focus background that Hooper created.

By continuing to have these themes drive the plot of the movie, Hooper and William Nicholson, the main screenwriter who adapted the musical for film, overlook Hugo’s sharp political criticism and even the reasons why particular characters were so angry and so opposed to monarchy.

Although many viewers are likely to be satisfied with the romantic plot and the great songs, many, especially those unfamiliar with the historical context, are undoubtedly perplexed. Throughout the nearly three-hour film, my dad nudged me and whispered, “Why is Cosette living with the Borat guy (Thénardier, played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and his wife? Why are the boys mad? Who’s General Lamarque? Why does it matter that he died?  Who’s Louis Philippe? Is this in Paris? When is this?”  In fact, exiting the movie theater I overheard a woman asking her friend, “So that was the French Revolution and it was unsuccessful?”

This woman’s question pointed out a common misconception about Les Misérables : that it is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, which began in 1789. That revolution lasted until 1799 and at first overthrew Louis XVI’s absolutist monarchy in favor of a constitutional monarchy and later, after Louis XVI’s execution in 1793, created a republic, or a democratically elected government without imagea monarch. But the 1789 revolution is not the backdrop for Les Misérables . Instead, Hugo’s novel and the musical take place during the Bourbon Restoration (1815-1830) and the very beginning of the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Although Hooper includes a quick five-second text at the beginning of the film that reads, “1815, 26 years after the Revolution, there is once again a French king on the throne,” few understand the implied, complicated historical context.

Unless you just took a course on French history, you might not remember that 1815 marked the end of the First French Empire. Following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and his subsequent exile to St. Helena, in 1815 Napoleon abdicated as Emperor. From 1815 until 1848, France was ruled by a monarchy, but unlike the earlier absolutist French monarchy, often referred to as the “Ancien Régime,” the Restoration was a constitutional monarchy that began with Louis XVIII who was later succeeded by Charles X. Under the Charter of 1814, a constitutional monarchy meant that even though the king still held considerable power over policy-making, his legal decrees had to be passed and legitimated by Parliament before they went into effect. But in 1830, Charles X tried to amend the Charter of 1814 to restrict the press and create a more absolutist form of government. Unhappy with this attack on their rights, many Parisians mobilized in July 1830 and forced Charles X to abdicate his throne in what became known as the July Revolution, or the Trois Glorieuses in French, referring to the three days of the uprising. The July Revolution is only glossed over in the novel and not addressed in the musical though it impacted the future June Rebellion of 1832 which is showcased in Les Misérables.

Louis Philippe succeeded Charles X and was initially very popular. But, like constitutional monarchs before him, he became more conservative, wanting to increase monarchical power. Working and living conditions of the poor rapidly deteriorated under Louis Philippe and the income gap between the working classes and the bourgeoisie widened considerably, resulting in increased opposition, antimonarchism, and civil unrest. One of the leading members of the opposition was Jean Maximilien Lamarque, referred to in the novel and the musical as “General Lamarque.” Once an enthusiastic supporter of Louis Philippe, Lamarque quickly became one of his biggest opponents, insisting that Louis Philippe’s form of constitutional monarchy was an affront to civil rights and political liberty. In the novel, General Lamarque is portrayed as a champion of the poor, working classes. Although this is implied in the film, his role beyond being a supporter of the poor is left unexplained, leading many to wonder why his death was the catalyst to the unsuccessful June Rebellion led by Enjolras, Marius, and other “Friends of the ABC.” Led by Parisian Republicans, most of whom were schoolboys, who wished to incite another rebellion like that of July 1830 and dissolve the monarchy, the June Rebellion was defeated and resulted in an estimated 800 casualties in Paris. Despite Enjolras mentioning that the “other barricades have fallen,” in the film we do not get a sense of just how many other barricades there were or how many other people were involved in the uprising. Only about twenty men are shown with Enjolras and Marius in the film, leading the viewer to believe that this was nothing more than an attempt by a handful of schoolboys to overthrow the government, when in actuality it was a somewhat larger movement than suggested. Their motivations for wanting to overthrow the government are only superficially explained with the song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” Although a sort of battle cry in the film, the song does not actually explain why these men, French Republicans, were opposed the constitutional monarchy.

The musical not only omitted Hugo’s scathing political criticism of Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III, but also the anticlerical sentiments espoused in Hugo’s novel. With the reestablishment of the monarchy in 1815, the Roman Catholic Church once again became a powerful force in French politics and society. Hugo displays the importance of the Catholic Church to French society during this period by emphasizing the importance of Bishop Myriel to his community and by staging numerous scenes in convents and other religious houses. However, his inclusion of these characters andimage scenes is not to be confused with praise. As he became increasingly opposed to monarchy, Hugo also became increasingly opposed to the Church. Despite being raised as a Catholic and remaining a believer (the last line of his will reads “Je crois en Dieu” or “I believe in God”), he found little use for organized religion and often viewed the Church as responsible for increasing the suffering of the poor thanks to its reduction in public services and what he saw as a general apathy of the people. But, based on the musical and the film, one might conclude that Hugo was a strong supporter and admirer of the Catholic Church.

Another issue that could have been better addressed in the film was the peculiar living situation of Fantine and Cosette. We learn early on that Fantine, who initially is working at Valjean’s factory, has an illegitimate daughter who she sent to live with an innkeeper, Thénardier, and his wife. After seeing the film, both my dad and one of my friends asked me, “Why in the world would Fantine send her daughter to live with an innkeeper and pay for it if Cosette works for them?” Sending children, especially girls, to live and work in other households was a rather common practice throughout this era.

Similar to indentured servitude, young girls were employed as domestic servants in households throughout Europe. Paid at the end of their terms, these domestic servants were usually allowed to live in the household in provided quarters and, under coverture laws, were legally dependent upon the head of the household they lived in. For many single mothers like Fantine who could probably not afford to care for Cosette completely, let alone watch her during the day, sending a child away to work and live would have been a difficult, yet necessary decision.

Les Misérables is a musical masterpiece and a thoroughly enjoyable movie-going experience, even without the historical context. However, if you are distracted by lingering contextual questions, I suggest that you browse the Wikipedia page on Les Misérables (the novel) before you see the film. This article will provide you with a brief synopsis of the plot, the characters, and enough historical context so you do not feel lost. And maybe forward that information to your friends and family beforehand so you aren’t the one being nudged every few minutes for answers to historical questions.

This review first appeared at Not Even Past .

Looking for more historian’s film reviews? Two recent Not Even Past reviews recommended for Alcalde readers are Django Unchained , Argo and Lincoln .

Images: The Les Misérables film poster; an 1849 caricature of Victor Hugo (Wikimedia Commons); a still image from the film.

Tags: film , france , historian , history , julia gossard , les misérables , movie , not even past , review

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Les misérables

Review by brian eggert april 23, 2020.

Les misérables , Ladj Ly’s first feature-length narrative film, does not attempt yet another adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 19th century novel of the same name. It does, however, take place in the same poor Paris suburb of Montfermeil, the neighborhood of Hugo’s novel that, even today, still houses a multicultural powderkeg of crime, police aggression, and social unrest. With almost documentary attention paid to harsh living conditions and sidewalks teeming with energy, Ly’s expansion of his 2017 short draws from his first-hand experiences during the 2005 French riots. He’s a somewhat controversial filmmaker whose two-year prison sentence for his role in a kidnapping, along with his convictions for earlier offenses, have been widely spotlighted by many news outlets. But threads of Ly’s past life, such as his arrest for posting a candid video of police online in 2011, work their way into the screenplay for Les misérables . Writing alongside Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, Ly’s authorship only enhances the verisimilitude of this intense thriller, whose sustained immediacy leads to an open-ended discussion prompt. 

Far from the high dramatics that follow a stolen loaf of bread in Hugo’s tome, Ly’s film adopts the structure of a police procedural set in the downtrodden banlieues outside of Paris. Given the subject matter and setting, other critics have made comparisons between Les misérables and Mathieu Kassovitz’s La haine (1995) or Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). To be sure, those influences inhabit Ly’s portrait of everyday life on the street, how he frames his narrative within a contained 24-hour period, and how the tensions between his characters gradually reach a dramatic tipping point. The ambiguous ending, too, raises questions about where the viewer should place their allegiances. Les misérables observes how cultural groups remain divided by race and religion; at the same time, the local police assume the worst about everyone, viewing themselves as cowboys in the lawless Wild West. Given the specifics of the story, however, there’s also a dash of Antoine Fuqua’s corrupt police drama Training Day (2001) and, even more so, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995) driving the film. 

Despite the national pride that Ly shows over the opening credits as Parisians celebrate France’s 2018 World Cup championship, the director reveals the divisions among them as the story progresses. Our entry point into Montfermeil is Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), a country cop who has joined the Street Crime Unit (SCU) to be closer to his ex-wife and son. It’s Stéphane’s first day in the big city, and he’s teamed with his commander, Chris (Alexis Manenti), a reactive racist who demands allegiance above all else. Chris (who actually shouts “I am the law!” at one point, and not as an ironic reference to Judge Dredd ) takes pride in his nickname as the “Pink Pig” and gets his kicks by frisking teenage girls. He’s a ball of toxic masculinity and moral bankruptcy, and he has no time for Stéphane’s voice of reason. Chris’ longtime partner, Gwada (Djibril Zonga), a black man who’s slightly more sensitive, follows the leader. The two have given Stéphane the nickname “Greaser,” to which he quietly protests in his polite way. 

Visually, Julien Poupard’s sharp cinematography looks almost too polished for this sort of urgent storytelling. For once, a gritty David Ayer style might have served the film better, even though Les misérables is unquestionably beautiful. Moments in the first scenes, where crowds of Parisians cheer on the French team, have been artfully framed against the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. As fans scream into the camera, the familiar journalistic point-of-view from within the crowd also bears a greater commentary about France’s passion. The country maintains a rich history of enacting change through protest and anger, as its citizens are known to pour into the streets out of national pride and moral outrage. Ly’s approach can feel like he’s creating a portrait of France itself. Still, the director captures his scenes using cold drone photography or slick ground-level shots, which immerse the viewer in extended takes that feel less impassioned than self-conscious. Even the handheld shots, or the chaotic stairwell sequence in the finale, have an undue composure that might betray the film’s otherwise grounded story. 

Similar to Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winner Dheepan from 2015, Ly’s film asks France to confront how their country forces immigrants into suburbs like Montfermeil, where they struggle to improve their lives amid rampant crime and under constant oppression from local anti-crime units. As the opened-ended last shot suggests, Les misérables does not point the blame at a single party; rather, it implies that both sides are responsible for people resorting to their worst selves. The situation will continue to perpetuate itself as long as the conditions remain the same. It’s a stirring message, which Ly has contained in a national framework of historical, literary, and cinematic parallels. But unlike La haine or Do the Right Thing , Ly’s film fades to black before its story comes to any kind of satisfying conclusion. It’s a tactic that incites the viewer to think about how the director’s approach relates to real-world issues, even as it robs Les misérables of any dramatic closure. However appropriate this choice may be to create change, it leaves something to be desired as storytelling.

(Note:  This review was selected by vote from supporters on Patreon . )

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REVIEW: Les Miserables (1998)

Jean Valjean (Neeson), an embittered and broken paroled convict, skips probation in search of a new life. Nine years later he has established a new identity and prospered as a small town business leader and mayor. His life is disrupted with Javert (Geoffrey Rush), a police officer and former gaol guard, recognises him from prison and works to reveal his true name.

Screenwriter Rafael Yglesias does a marvellous job of adapting Hugo for film. While the story has been stripped of many subplots and details, it compresses the core components into a tightly constructed two hour narrative. The core of  Les Miserables is the contrast and balance between law and justice: Javert is all law, inflexible and devastating, and pursues Valjean incessantly for breaking rules. Valjean, of course, is transformed from his experiences into a just and generous man. His good deeds over the course of his post-criminal life far outweigh the petty crime he originally committed.

This balance relies on strong performances, and August’s film benefits enormously from the casting of Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. Neeson is perfectly cast for Valjean’s sheer physicality, and does an excellent job of playing the character’s gradual transformation from one stage of his life to the next. By contrast, Rush’s Javert is straight as an arrow, never-changing, but infused with an edge of unnecessary cruelty. The two actors drive the film. While Uma Thurman is excellent as Fantine, her role has been pared down considerably to fit the two-hour running time. Claire Danes has much more to do in the film’s second half, although her role does not feel like much of a challenge – essentially relying on the same emotional beats as in her Romeo + Juliet  two years earlier. Several of the supporting players stand out, notably Lenny James as the revolutionary Enjolras and Peter Vaughan as the Bishop Myriel.

The film was shot in Prague, which lends an excellent air of early 19th century Paris – except for moments when it becomes to apparent that it’s Prague. One wonders if there was musical issues involved in the making of the film: Basil Poledouris’ extant score is decent enough, but the original theatrical trailer listed Gabriel Yared in the role. Either way, the Boublil/Schönberg stage score looms over any adaptation; it’s so iconic that anything else feels somehow lacking.

Les Miserables  works as a strong period drama with rich characters, and as a reasonably faithful adaptation of a literary masterpiece. Rarely does the quality rise to feel particularly striking or transcendent, but to criticise that too much would be to punish the film for simply being really quite good instead of exceptional. If Hooper’s hopelessly compromised musical effort was too lacklustre for you, August’s attempt may remedy your disappointment.

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REVIEW: Ring 2 (1999)

REVIEW: Spiral (1998)

REVIEW: Ring (1998)

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Les Misérables

This review originally ran on January 10th and is being re-run because it’s now on Amazon Prime.

Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” is haunted by the memory of the fall of 2005, when riots broke out in the suburbs of Paris (and other cities), riots which raged for three terrible weeks. The mostly North African immigrant population in these suburbs were protesting the constant police harassment as well as the tragic death of two kids, electrocuted while hiding from the police in a substation. “Les Misérables” takes place in 2018, but “2005” is never far from anyone’s consciousness. “Ever since 2005…” one character says. Nothing more needs to said. Everyone understands. Nothing has been solved or addressed. If anything, the situation is even more damaged and polarized. “Les Misérables” is a gripping experience, tense and upsetting, showing how seemingly small events, perhaps manageable in the particulars, can balloon into something out of control, like a fire exploding into a conflagration.

The opening scenes take place during the World Cup celebrations in 2018, showing a group of kids joining the giant crowds cheering on the streets of Paris, after jumping turnstiles to get there. They drape themselves in the French flag, join in the singing of “La Marseillaise,” and are shown celebrating in epic shots backgrounded by familiar Paris landmarks, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. Ly tosses you into the middle of the crowd, pressing in on all sides in seething exhilaration and unity of purpose. This sequence is a prologue, unconnected to the events that follow, at least in terms of plot, but crucial in establishing the concerns and themes of the film. As “Les Misérables” unfolds, these same kids, living in a housing project in Montfermeil, are targeted by the police for what is, essentially, a prank, and events will come to an uncontrollable boil, egged on by the racist commando-style of the police, and the general unrest and paranoia already simmering in the area. But first, Ly shows the kids joining in the celebration for France. It’s their country, too.

“Les Misérables” then shifts its focus to a small police team, patrolling the streets of the suburb of Montfermeil, with its mainly North African population. There are two veterans of the detail: Gwada (Djebril Zonga), who grew up in the area, is bilingual (French and Berber), and is able to diffuse tensions, and Chris ( Alexis Manenti ), Gwada’s polar opposite, a white Frenchman whose theory of policing is simple: “Never sorry. Always right.” On this one very long day, they have a new guy with them, Corporal Ruiz ( Damien Bonnard ), whom they nickname “Greaser” because of his slicked back hair. Ruiz is a newbie, whose main experience has been as a first responder (this experience will come into play later), and learning the ropes is not easy. Montfermeil, famously, is where Victor Hugo placed the Thenardier’s inn in his 1862 magnum opus: Chris jokes that “Gavroche” would now be “Gavrochah,” meaning Muslim, presumably.

There are interactions throughout the day with civilians, some good-natured, some hostile. Chris is a live wire, Gwada more calm, while Ruiz just learns the lay of the land. There are many players on the board, and the narrative leaps around, from the kids seen in the opening, to the cops, to the Mayor, to the Muslim Brotherhood (who try to keep the kids under control at the mosque), to an “ex-thug” (so-called) who has turned himself into the spiritual leader, the “go-to guy” of the area. All of these alliances shift and transform, depending on the context.

It’s all just a normal day until a stolen lion cub threatens to turn 2018 into 2005 all over again. The circus “gypsies” show up en masse demanding the return of their circus lion, and the confrontation is so violent the cops can barely contain it. What could be handled with a simple command to the teenage perpetrator—”Hey, kid, just return the lion, okay?”—is a situation completely blown out of proportion, and in the high-adrenaline atmosphere of hyped-up cops and furious teenagers, anything can happen, and anything does. One added layer of complication is that the confrontation is caught on the drone camera, operated by a solitary kid on the roof.

The comparison with “ Do the Right Thing ” is apt (the condensed timeline, the multi-character story, the “inciting event” of police violence followed by justifiable outrage), and Ly juggles multiple balls deftly. This is a three-dimensional portrait of a community, its striations of authority, the wary alliances made, the backdoor deals, the wheeling and dealing between unlikely allies. Ly uses a documentary style, but maintains control over extremely complicated chase sequences and fight sequences. The potential of violence trembles in every interaction, but Ly doesn’t pump things up artificially. The subject is heated enough, it needs no over-heating.

In 2010, far-right politician Marine Le Pen commented on the plan to close off the streets in a Paris neighborhood to make room for Muslim prayers, referring to it as an “occupation,” like in wartime: “There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is nevertheless an occupation and it weighs heavily on local residents.” What is at stake in “Les Misérables” is not just a stolen lion cub, or even the fate of this one neighborhood. What is at stake is issues of citizenship, which really means issues of belonging. Who “gets to” belong? Who “gets to” think of themselves as “French”? The cops make it perfectly clear in their behavior that the people outside their car windows are not really “French” to them.

The opening scenes, where the kids celebrate the World Cup in front of the Eiffel Tower, linger and haunt, increasingly painful in memory.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Damien Bonnard as Brigadier Stéphane Ruiz, dit Pento
• Alexis Manenti as Chris
• Djibril Zonga as Gwada
• Steve Tientcheu as Le Maire
• Jeanne Balibar as La commissaire
• Issa Perica as Issa
• Al-Hassan Ly as Buzz
• Almamy Kanoute as Salah
• Alexis Manenti
• Giordano Gederlini
• Flora Volpelière
• Richard Deusy

Director of Photography

• Julien Poupard
• Matthieu Autin

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