Les Miserables is a musical
directed by Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) entirely performed vocally, based on
the 1985 Broadway stage play situated against the chaos which ensued after the
return of the Bourbon Monarchs to power in France and the Rebellion of 1832
where many of the populace were slaughtered in their attempt to bring back the
Republic. This film focuses on the
hero, Jean Valjean’s attempt to rebuild his life and restore the 19 years that
were lost to him when he was imprisoned under brutal conditions for stealing a
loaf of bread vs. a fanatic law abiding Inspector Javert who rabidly hunts him
for over 20 years after Jean Valjean breaks parole.
The film juxtaposes
rehabilitation and the path to humanity via the power of love, kindness and
merciful acts, with the equally obsessive adherence to the letter of the law
that clearly should not be confused with justice and righteousness.
I loved the book Les
Miserables published in 1862 by Victor Hugo which was filled with revolutionary
fervor, great compassion for the “wretched” of Paris and pages dedicated to
architectural detail about the construction of the Paris Sewer System – a place
where the final confrontation between the past and present of Valjean and
Inspector Javert climax in the book and film.
Upton Sinclair wrote about
this great novel: “…So long as
there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which,
in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates
a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of
the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and
the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so
long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words,
and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery
remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless…”
I found the film version to
be disappointing both emotionally and visually. The production felt like a
transposed stage set. Even though the movie runs for close to 2 1/2 hours, I
had very little sense of the characters – perhaps it was the format– totally
sung with no dialogue that seemed to take precedent. Hugh Jackman gave a fine
depiction of Jean Valjean, though I felt he seemed to be too slight in build to
be able to enact the feats of physical as well as inner strength, that are the
essence of this character, that physicality plays an important part in moving
the plot forward. Anne Hathaway (Fantine) – the “fallen woman”, the victim of
abandonment, and harsh treatment by her fellow workers, jealous of her beauty
and innocence, do not evince any empathy to a single mother whose aim in life
is to be able to support her daughter Cosette – worker solidarity be damned.
After her death, Jean Valjean brings up Fantine’s child, removing her from the
heinous servile situation she was placed in under the care of Innkeepers performed by Sacha
Baron Cohen and as his wife Helena Bonham Carter, both providing unnecessary comic relief.
I found them to be the most distracting burlesque elements of the film – popping up
everywhere and grotesquely transparent. On the other hand, I did not mind
Russell Crowe or his non-professional voice as Inspector Javert and found that when he was on
the screen he radiated the presence that the others lacked. His character was
also quite interesting - his strict adherence to brutal principles, no matter how
corrupted they were by a system which relegated the poor – the “miserables” to
oblivion and deplorable dissolution.
This modest movie relates a
saga told over many years, from the time we meet Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) as a
child and later as a lovely, elegant woman who catches the eye of Eddie
Redmayne’s Marius who is one of the young idealistic revolutionaries building
the barricades in an effort to overthrow the existing political system. Their
wildly fairy-tale relationship ties together an account of romantic and
familial love, heroism, and political upheaval bringing the cycle of redemption and ambush
full circle to a melodramatic conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment