Les Misérables

(Tom Hooper, 2012)

with Dad, Devin, Darcy, Caitlin, and Christine Gray, Redstone Cinemas, 12/26/12

5

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone involved in Les Misérables that adapting a Broadway musical into a blockbuster movie might require making some actual changes.  Do they replace some of the awkward speak-singing with dialogue?  Nope.  Do they cut one or two (or three or four) of the more obviously superfluous musical numbers?  Nope.  Choose a protagonist?  Nope.  Decide what their main storyline is?  Don’t be ridiculous!  What they do is slavishly follow the structure of the stage play – which is ironic, since that play was itself based on a Victor Hugo novel, and naturally took whatever liberties were necessary in order to make the material stage-worthy.  The filmmakers don’t have the same vision or courage, so they content themselves with producing a kind of cinematic companion to the 1985 theatrical production.  It’s a shame, because the actors – Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway in particular – bring an extraordinary vulnerability to their roles.  Performances like this deserve to be in a real movie.