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.

The Danish Girl

Dir: Tom Hooper

2015

***

The Danish Girl is easily Tom Hooper's best film, however, in my opinion he's a director that has become rather lazy after his initial success. The Danish Girl is awards fodder before it is an accomplished story. The script is terribly overcooked, the first twenty minutes is a bombardment of suggestive and over-obvious leads into the film's theme. The spoon-feeding continues throughout, I'm not sure who this really services, as most viewers will know what the film is about and those that don't probably won't appreciate how predictable it is. The story really does skip around what is quite an important issue and never once tackles the taboo. Visually, the film is absolutely stunning, with every location meticulously chosen to reflect the trends of the day and to complement the artistic work of the main characters but there is no denying, this is the safe version of what was a very different story. The visual interpretation of Lili Elbe's realisation that he was really born a women is actually rather tasteless in that it is skipped through in such a shallow way. There is a lot of looking into mirrors, stroking soft materials and the putting of ones hand upon ones face, and really not much else. I like Eddie Redmayne but the truth is that his is not really an award-worthy performance. He lost a lot of weight and was dressed well. That really is all his portrayal is. Far greater praise should be given to Alicia Vikander for her performance, although her character is also woefully under-developed. She's a brilliant actor, I do hope she isn't overlooked as she deserves meaty roles and shouldn't just be considered as possibly the next Bond girl (my first prediction of the year). So many aspects of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener's work, life and relationship are missing here, it's impossible to fit all of someone's life in a film but with a running time of just over two hours, they left a lot out and filled the story with an awful amount of unnecessary filler and fictional characters who bring nothing to the story. There are one or two sumptuous scenes in the film that it will ultimately be remembered for but the real life story of the couple is far more interesting and deserved far more depth. It's a squandered story, one that has been taken advantage of and given a predictable and sickly-sweet ending. I fear it has achieved very little for the 'transgender movement' as the final credits refers to it by. Personally I think that tells you all you need to know, the film makers think those with transgender issues are a 'movement' rather than people. The Danish Girl is a beautiful dream sequence, an aspartame version of the truth, an inoffensive version of a very real and difficult issue that shouldn't affect the votes from the bigoted mass. Plenty to enjoy visually, enough to warrant three stars but in many respects it really doesn't deserve them. I want to see the Mike Leigh version instead.

The Damned United
Dir: Tom Hooper
2009
***
It is fair to say that I'm not much of a sports fan, let alone a football fan but there's no denying it's a sport full of fascinating characters, Leeds United one time manager Brian Clough being one of the more colourful. Tom Hooper's direction is great, the attention to detail and his composition of every frame is beautiful and just as good, if not better, than his following film, The King's Speech. The acting is also very good from all of the cast, particularly Michael Sheen in the leading role who seemed to be the go to guy for portraying real life people around the time (Tony Blair, Kenneth Williams, David Frost) and although Timothy Spall looks nothing like Peter Taylor, he still did a great job as always and gives the film the heart it needed. A great little slice of 70's England.

The King's Speech
Dir: Tom Hooper
2010
***
I'm not sure The king's Speech deserved the Oscar if I'm being honest, at least not compared to some of the other nominees (and some films well off the Oscar radar). I'm not at all surprised it did win and to be honest but I'm not particularly outraged that it did. All the hype aside, it is a well told film. Tom Hooper is a really good director with a great eye for detail and is a great story teller too. The Damned United proved his skill, The King's Speech is hopefully a sign of what's to come. The performances are really good too, Firth's performance was as good as any for 2010, Rush is always good and not least here but poor old Helena Bonham Carter, the biggest Oscar snub of the year in my opinion (although Melissa Leo was quite good). The casting of Guy Pearce was quite a surprise too, not that he isn't a great actor, he just isn't the most obvious first choice to play King Edward VIII. The jury is out on Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill, I like him but I didn't find it particularly convincing. All in all, a fantastic film, Oscar-wise, maybe third best film nominated behind Black Swan and Biutiful (which should have won in my opinion).