Les Misérables

Dir: Tom Hooper

2012

***

Les Misérables has always been a tricky musical to adapt. I thought Claude Lelouch's 1995 early 20th century version was quite clever, Bille August's 1998 version impressive and Richard Boleslawski's 1935 adaptation is an absolute classic. All adaptions have made changes to the original story from Victor Hugo's much loved novel, the only other adaption that has captured people's imagination, probably more so than the others put together, is Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil's musical, later reworked into the English language by Cameron Mackintosh. The songs attached to the musical have become well known in a very short amount of time, such has the successful of the production been, in fact it is London's longest running West End musical and the second longest running show in the world (at the time of writing this review), just behind the lesser known and lesser successful The Fantasticks (for now). A new adaptation of Les Misérables needed to be something different and people have been asking for it for years, so Tom Hooper directed Les Mis the movie. I have no idea how passionate Tom Hooper is about the stage show but I would wager a bet he now has a taste for awards now he has won so many. A musical adaptation of Les Misérables was always going to be awards bait and a licence to print money. I'll be fair though, it is a great adaptation. I balked at the idea of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried singing their way through the film when it was first announced but more fool me as each actor performed brilliantly, Jackman and Hathaway delivering particularly impressive performances. The big musical numbers are really good and I particularly enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen's rendition of Master of the House when I really thought I wouldn't. It is fair to say that everyone in front of and behind the camera upped their game. However, I thought the second half wasn't half as strong as the first half and the constant singing was hard to sit through for three solid hours. This has nothing to do with the direction or performances but the overall adaption itself. It's just not to my taste. I think something new could have been added to the musical to make this the ultimate adaptation but that is just my humble opinion. I enjoyed it but I will never, ever sit through it again, and I love a big musical.