Les Miserables

The worldwide phenomenon known as Les Miserables is brought to the big screen for the second time in a musical adventure telling the story of love, forgiveness, and mercy among the residents of France. Jean Valjean is a former convict who was thrown into prison for stealing some bread to give to a little boy. After Valjean is released he tries to find work among the towns in the area, but no one offers any assistance to the ex-convict. Instead they shun him and even at times physically abuse him. Fortunately Valjean eventually comes across a priest who has pity on him and offers Valjean food, water and a place to rest for the night. Despite the priest's kindness towards him, Valjean returns to his stealing nature and swipes some silver items from the priest. He is soon caught and brought back to the priest to return the silver and then be taken back into prison. It is at this point in which Valjean has the concept of forgiveness and grace revealed to him. The priest not only tells the authorities that he had given Valjean the silver, but that he had forgotten the most important pieces. When the authorities leave the priest he tells Valjean that he must use the silver given to him to become an honest man. Wrought with grief over what he had done, Valjean vows to make a difference not only in his own life, but in the lives of others around him. He rips up his parole papers and sets out on a journey of redemption.

I had really high hopes for Les Miserables because it is one of my top three favorite musicals ever, however after watching it with my family I felt a little disappointed with the result. For starters Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe were not very good singers; some of the others did ok from a staying on key standpoint, but they lacked the power behind the voice to do their parts justice. I felt like the passion of the resistance and the pain of losing one's loved ones was virtually non-existant save for Anne Hathaway as Fantine and a 12 year old kid who becomes a vital part of the revolution. I almost wondered if the director went for popular actors to draw people in instead of getting performers who could act AND sing. Anne Hathaway's song near the beginning of the musical was phenomenal - if she doesn't at the very least get an Academy Award nomination for her part then something is wrong with whoever votes on the Academy Awards. She deserves it. Unfortunately, for me her amazing voice was not enough for me to care for the film as a whole. I was expecting to feel pain at Fantine's situation, anger at the death of a couple of characters, and get a feeling of sympathy towards the revolutionaries. Those feelings were not apparently meant to be, because I left the theater feeling nothing. This was the most disappointing thing about Les Miserables.