Review: Les Misérables(2012)

Review:Les Misérables(2012)
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Official "Les Miserables(2012)" Poster.

      The combination of the perfect director and a talented cast led to this movie, which is a magnificent nonparallel musical showpiece that will blow your minds away.

"Hugh Jackman".

"Russell Crowe".

      The story is that of 'Jean Valjean'(Hugh Jackman), who fled from the authority, to start a new life as a mayor of a town in France, 8 years after he broke his parole. But when nearly exposed by police inspector 'Javert'(Russell Crowe), he accidentally meets 'Fantine'(Anne Hathaway), who suffered too much, and promises her to take care of her illegitimate little daughter 'Cosette'(Isabelle Allen). And then the story continues 9 years later, where the June Rebellion of France starts. 'Valjean' is trying to keep older 'Cosette'(Amanda Seyfried) safe , who has fallen for 'Marius Pontmercy'(Eddie Redmayne), a revolutionist student. The story also shows feelings such as love, sadness, anger, rebellion, and pain. And hope. Other characters include 'Thenardiers'(Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen), 'Eponine'(Samantha Barks), the destitute daughter of the 'Thenardiers', 'Enjolras'(Aaron Tevit), leader of 'Les Amis de L'ABC', and 'Gavroshe'(Daniel Huttlestone), a street boy working with the revolution'.

"Amanda Seyfreid" and
"Eddie Redmayne".

"Anne Hathaway".

      This movie proves to all that musical films can be a strong and successful venture for all studios, if done the proper way. This movie is really good, something that I did not expect at all. "Victor Hugo"'s story 'Les Misérables' has been adapted in movies and theaters more than any other book. To be more exact, 57 times it has been adapted to a movie, regardless if all the story's elements were mentioned or not. So what makes this movie be that much special? First, the entire movie has barley 3 dialogue lines. The entire movie is sung live by the cast during filming. And second, it is the first time that almost all critics unanimously agree that this talented cast is the best 'Les Misérables' cast out of all the other adaptations.

"Helena Bonham Carter",
"Isabelle Allen"
and "Sacha Baron Cohen".

"Hugh Jackman" and "Isabelle Allen".

      Director "Tom Hooper", whose most notable work was the Oscar winning movie 'The King's Speech', for me did an amazing job combining pain, suffering, love, and hope in such a beautiful way. There is no other director who could have done what he has done. It was a bold move from his part to make all the cast sing live as opposed to the traditional lip-sync. And it was a smart move, since for me it made the actors that much at ease to sing as if they were doing a dialogue, so they were allowed to have pauses so they could bring forward raw and true emotions. I do agree at some points the voices do get a little bit annoying, but the majority of the performances were incredible. The pacing of the movie was necessary to bring as much elements from the novel as possible. The directing techniques were great especially when actors were singing solo; "Hooper" often shot the performance in one frame. It allowed the audience not to get too dizzy and to focus on the actor's emotion.

"Aaron Tevit".

"Samantha Barks"/.

      The opening scene was really theatrically enjoyable. I noticed that in this adaptation, the producers and writers included many religious aspects to the movie, which for me was 50-50! My best part of the movie was definitely 'Fantine''s part. I wish she was in all of the film, but for this to happen the story had to be changed. The revolution scenes were really good, but during the attack of the 'Parisians' on the revolution students I was a little bit annoyed. And this was because the camera moved really fast ,which made me a little bit confused and dizzy. The 3 best musical performances were 'I Dreamed a Dream' by 'Fantine', 'One Day More' by the cast of 'Les Misérables', and 'On My Own' by 'Eponine'. The ending was really beautiful and sums up the movie's themes, which were theatricality and realism.

"Russel Crowe" and"Hugh Jackman"

"Anne Hathaway".

      And now we move on to the cast, starting with the incredible "Hugh Jackman". Although I will always remember him as the 'Wolverine', when thinking about his best performance this will definitely be the one. All critics unanimously agree that "Jackman" did an amazing job. The performance was so real and raw, that I was pleasantly surprised that he could be able to pull this off. And the star of the movie was definitely the beautiful "Anne Hathaway". In every scene she was in she shined and made this movie that much better. And to win so much awards, including the Oscars for 'Best Supporting Actress', was really nice to watch. I had problems with "Russell Crowe"'s performance. At times he was great and at times he was not so good; furthermore, his voice was for me the weakest of them all. That said, I don't think anyone could have been in this role in this movie.

"Hugh Jackman".

"Eddie Redmayne" and
"Amanda Seyfreid".

       "Amanda Seyfried" was good, but she was outshone mostly by her co-stars, and she should have had more screen time. But her chemistry with "Eddie" was electrifying. "Eddie Redmayne" and "Samantha Barks" are rising stars. "Redmayne" was really impressive, and "Barks" who previously played 'Eponine' in the London production of the movie, had the most amazing voice I have ever heard. "Aaron Tveit" was another pleasant surprise playing 'Enjolras', so is "Daniel Huttlestone" as 'Gavroche". And all the credit for the comedy in the movie will go to "Helena Bonham Carter" and "Sacha Baron Cohen" , who nailed their performances as the "Thenardiers".

      For all people who know about the story of 'Les Misérables' must watch this adaptation. It is definitely one of the best musicals of all time, as well as one of the best movies of 2012.

"Les Miserables(2012)".

-"Les Misérables(2012)" Info:
-Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddy Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Isabelle Allen, Daniel Huttlestone, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen.
-Based on: -the novel 'Les Misérables' by Victor Hugo.
                  -the musical 'Les Misérables' by Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.
-Studio(s): Working Title Films, Relativity Media, and Universal Pictures.
-Directed by: Tom Hooper.
-Music by: Claude-Michel Schönberg.
-Running Time: 158 minutes.
-Budget: $ 61,000,000.
-Box Office: Domestic(US): $ 148,809,770.
                      Foreign: $ 288,800,696.
-Ratings: -IMdb: 7.7/10.
                -Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
                -Metacritic: 63%

                -PERSONAL RATING: 8.5/10.

-"Les Misérables(2012)" Trailer: