Les Miserables Reactions

[*NikkiBell*]

So, the film came out on Christmas day. Have you seen it yet? Reactions?

(I'm at the theater waiting for it to start as I'm typing this!)

 

[Chropistopy]

I really enjoyed the film. I was brought to tears a couple of times. My one disappointment was Russell Crowe. His singing left a lot to be desired...and he just looked uncomfortable the entire time. I know they wanted star power behind this movie but I wish they would have cast a lesser known but more talented broadway actor in the role.

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

I think Girard Butler would have been better than Russel Crowe. He is handsome and can sing relatively well. He was great as the Phantom!

I plan to see it over the next week or so.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

I saw it last night and loved it!! I was prepared for the singing to be really bad based on some reviews I read and was pleasantly surprised, particularly by Hugh Jackman. Russell Crowe was not exactly Javert to me, but he wasn't bad (and certainly much better than the travesty that was Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!) I particularly loved that the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, was tapped to play the bishop. I thought that was a nice touch. And I really liked that it was filmed with them singing live rather than to a track.

Laurie

 

[wgeo]

I saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it. If by enjoy, you mean cried the entire time! I'm a crier though . The singing wasn't always the best, but overall it was still amazing, I thought. In my opinion, the actress playing Eponine was the best singer, what a voice. I also really like Anne Hathaway. I wasn't overly impressed with Russell Crowe, but my husband thought he was perfect for the part.

 

[goofy4tink]

We saw it on the 26th. I was pleasantly surprised. The vocals were much better than I had thought they would be. No, Russell Crowe isn't going to win awards for his vocal talents any time soon, but he was much better than I was prepared for. Especially in his lower range....as soon as he hit a high baritone range, he started to weaken. I can only imagine how uncomfortable he must have been having to sing as well as act. Not his forte. But, it worked for me....surprisingly.

Hugh Jackman was incredible. You can always tell who has a musical theatre background!!!
The girl who played Eponine came directly from the stage version.....man, could that girl sing!!! The best female vocal there.
Anne Hathaway surprised me as well. She sang very well. My dd, 19, said Anne was perfection!!!

This has not been my favorite musical...for many reasons. But, I did enjoy the film version. Maybe I'm a lazy theater-goer, but I find that following the action in the stage version of Les Mis is hard, but the film version made everything very clear for me...finally!!! My poor dd would be mortified to hear me say that, but it is what it is!!

 

[*NikkiBell*]

While I thought it was a great movie and amazingly done, I did feel it was a little long. Some of the scenes were slow for me, and I thought they could have been modified a bit. Also, I have to agree with what many people are saying about Russel Crowe. His voice was awkward and did not show the power that I felt his character warranted. With this being said, the movie itself was wonderfully done, and I was very impressed by Anne Hatheway and Hugh Jackman's performances!

 

[wiigirl]

I loved it! Going to go see it again with some girlfriends this weekend.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I saw it with my son this afternoon (mom/son afternoon birthday celebration - his ). His favorite character was Russell Crowe. I had never seen it before, nor knew the story, and was caught up in the entire movie. Although I hadn't seen it, I did recognize some of the songs, due to Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's got talent, and one of the Dreams Unlimited Travel agents, Dan, who has an amazing voice.

I'm so glad we saw the movie. I enjoyed all the casting, especially Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, the little boy, and, well, all of them. I thought it was well done.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

It just occurred to me that I have heard little reaction from critics and fans about Helena Bonham Carter. I have become a big fan of her work over the past several years; part of me would love to see how she would do as Elphaba from Wicked. She definitely did not disappoint in Les Mis. What did everyone else think?

 

[UConnFan]

It just occurred to me that I have heard little reaction from critics and fans about Helena Bonham Carter. I have become a big fan of her work over the past several years; part of me would love to see how she would do as Elphaba from Wicked. She definitely did not disappoint in Les Mis. What did everyone else think?

I love her! I thought she was perfect for the role. I'm no Les Mis expert by any means, but I can't imagine a better performance. I love Anne Hathaway too, and I wasn't sure what to expect from her.

I agree that some of the scenes were needlessly long, but overall I enjoyed it.

 

[dalt01]

i may not get to see this for a couple of weeks, no one has mentioned the song that i consider the show stopper, Master of The House, did they pull that off?

 

[sayhello]

It just occurred to me that I have heard little reaction from critics and fans about Helena Bonham Carter. I have become a big fan of her work over the past several years; part of me would love to see how she would do as Elphaba from Wicked. She definitely did not disappoint in Les Mis. What did everyone else think?

I'm also a big fan of Helena Bonham Carter. But her and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thénardiers were actually my least favorite thing about the movie. At first I thought they were just *too* over the top (which I didn't think was possible for those roles). After talking to a friend, I'm now not sure exactly what I didn't like about their performances, but they just did not work for me.

Overall, I really loved the movie. Hugh Jackman was fabulous (what a face!) and Anne Hathaway gave such a poignancy to the role of Fantine and performed a heart-breaking "I Dreamed a Dream". There are certainly tons of people who could have sung Javert better than Russell Crowe, but he was not as horrid as I've been hearing people say he was. Eponine was spectacular, with definitely the best voice of them all. She was perfection. And I really, truly loved the Revolutionaries. I think, as a whole, they all performed amazingly well. And I felt like I actually understood the politics behind what they were doing much better than I have before. But I still want to know why Gavroche had a Cockney accent in Paris. And a really thick, hard to understand Cockney... Oh, well. He was really good if a bit incongruent.

Sayhello

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Most of the lower class characters have cockney accents in the theater version, too. I think it has to do with the show originating in London and that accent being associated with the lower class in popular culture. I loved Helena Bonham Carter as usual and enjoyed Sasha Baron Cohen. i knew they'd do a great job with those characters.

Laurie

 

[joanjett1976]

Saw it yesterday. Have many conflicting feelings about it. Being quite familiar with the stage version, I enjoyed it but....

Thought Russell Crowe was horribly miscast.
Like many movies I saw this year, thought it was about 30 minutes too long.
Anne Hathaway was absolutely heartbreaking as Fantine.
The live singing really made things feel more intimate and natural
Great sets and costumes
Who invited Borat to the party?

 

[auroralark]

Saw it today. I'm very familiar with the musical, and I just loved the movie. It wasn't perfect and I agree Russell Crowe was miscast, but there was so much that was right that I can overlook everything else. Anne Hathaway was amazing and lived up to the hype for sure.

 

[donac]

I have not seen the movie but I knew Anne Hathaway would be good. When she was in high school she won a state award for leading actress in a high school musical. I have seen this awards show several times and these girls are amazing so I knew she would be good.

 

[Little c Travel]

i may not get to see this for a couple of weeks, no one has mentioned the song that i consider the show stopper, Master of The House, did they pull that off?

They did. Sacha Baron Cohen was perfect for Thenardier. He and Helena Bonham Carter did a great version of Master of the House.

Overall the movie was fanastic. Samantha Banks as Eponine stole the show IMO. I also think people are being a little hard on Crowe, I thought he really capatured the unbending Javert.

 

[misstheworld]

DH and I saw this on Christmas Day and we loved it. I should say that we come from different camps. I've seen the show before on stage a few times (both locally and in NYC), have seen the 25th anniversary show on PBS, and my choir sang most of the music when I was in high school. DH had never seen it, heard about it, and had no clue other than watching the trailer online.

Russell Crow did a great job, even if his vocals were slightly less than spectacular. His acting was top notch. DH loved him, but he'd never seen a stage version where I think they have a much broader vocal range.

The rest of the cast was simply wonderful. I can't wait to go back and see it again. In fact, I'd LOVE if they did a sing-along version...I mouthed the words the whole time. DH thought that was hilarious.

While I personally can't stand Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, they were perfect for their roles. I think you're supposed to hate them and I did...thoroughly.

 

[timmac]

I came away from this movie pleasantly surprised. I should mention specifically that I am generally NOT a fan of musicals, and quipped with my fiance that I couldn't believe we were going to see a movie with 'Miserable' right in the title

While I do agree that Crowe doesn't match up to the broadway/singing type backgrounds that a lot of others possessed, I was actually quite happy with
his performance, as I thought he brought a nice rendition of the character. Ditto for HBC and SBC, I loved them... not only are they people you are
basically supposed to hate, but they also provide some subtle comic relief, and fit that role perfectly.

While I can't find specific complaint with Anne Hathaway per se, I came away feeling like her character was a bit over the top. I realize that's partly how the character is supposed to be, but even still I came away feeling like the lyrics "I would like to thank the academy" may as well have been part of the script. In fairness, the musical genre doesn't help this, and that's probably the source of my dissatisfaction of both the genre and her role in the movie... that it just felt too forced.

Hugh Jackman was fantastic... a good solid performance all the way through the movie, and great dynamic range both as an actor and singer. He commanded a certain sense of stage presence, yet without completely stealing the show (in strong contrast to how I found it with Hathaway).

One other minor nit... in the first ten seconds of the movie, the shot that panned over the ship appeared to be fairly mediocre CGI, even compared to
titles from over a decade ago. I realize it's a fairly minor point, but it definitely stuck out at me.

Overall, I would say it was a very good movie. Not super-fantastic, but very good. 4 stars (of 5) from me.