Film Revues: January 2013

Tom Hooper was probably the wrong person to direct the big screen adaptation of the hit musical Les Miserables. Its not that he's a bad director; his King's Speech (2010) won him an Oscar, though I think most remember that film for Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush then they do for Hooper's direction. He's better at framing small, personal relationships and playing with more subtlety. I admire King's Speech a great deal, but I don't think it showed Hooper having the know-it to direct Les Miserables. This is almost like when David Yates took over the Harry Potter franchise, a move I still say was a poor one on the producers' part.

Les Miserables is not subtle. Characters sing everything they feel, and sometimes what they sing is heartfelt and wrought, and sometimes its simply pining for a loved one who will not love them back. There is nothing wrong with being big and grand, but Hooper doesn't seem to know when to focus intimately on his characters and when to let the camera and editing take over.

Les Miserables is a sprawling story, but the core focus is on criminal Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man serving a 19 year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread. He is paroled, but Javert (Russell Crowe) is sure to let him know that he'll always be watching since he believes criminals never reform. Through various circumstances, Valjean decides to seek redemption by taking in an orphaned child and raising her as his own, before he's caught in a student uprising that forms a feeble attempt at a Second French Revolution.

There are many solos throughout this movie; its an operetta, and people tend to sing through most of these. While I'm fine with this art form, I find Hooper's staging of many numbers to be insufferable. I should note that I have no familiarity with the stage musical beyond listening to the cast album, so this is my first time really seeing the material. Just throwing that out there.

Where it does work is when characters have hit rock bottom. Early on, Valjean contemplates the charity of a preacher, and vows to reform his life. Jackman, sporting a great, big, bushy beard, infuses this song with great gusto and establishes what we can expect from the coming performances. Next is Anne Hathway as Fantine, the mother who just wants to earn enough money for her child, and is forced into prostitution to do so. After her first customer, she lays, shamed, and sings I Dreamed a Dream. Hooper holds on Hathaway's face for the entire duration of the song and never once cuts away. Its a stunning performance, and will bring even the most skeptical close to tears. I don't like making predictions in reviews, but Hathaway is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actress.

But once Hathaway departs you realize she has cast a shadow over the rest of her co-stars. Hooper repeats the use of close-ups during emotional solos, but none of the actors come close to matching Hathaway, except perhaps for Eddie Redmayne's performance of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. But Eponine (Samantha Bark) pines for a love that will never be hers, Valjean decides to save a certain character, and Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) & Marius (Redmayne) fall in love. Hooper focuses on their faces, and while the actors are all admirable, they can't hold my attention for three minutes the way Hathaway did earlier.

Perhaps I would have found it more bearable if Hooper found more compelling ways to stage some of his songs. A Heart Full of Love, which is a powerful ballad, is fairly boring when we simply cut back and forth between Seyfried and Redmayne singing to each other through a fence gate. It's boring, boring, boring! However, you can sense where Hooper knew to maybe add a little more to the editing, and that is with Javert. Russell Crowe can't sing very well, and he looks like he's suffering through this role just trying to get by, which is a shame since Javert is easily the most interesting character. His two big solo numbers, however, are covered and shot to hide the stiff performance, and it works. I was more entertained by Javert's songs, though the singing was off, then I was by many other solos where the singing and acting were better. Film is not the stage, and if you don't realize that, you're lost.

Hooper's framing also irritates me. Many times characters are placed in odd parts of the screen, or facing the edge of the screen with a big blank wall behind him. This is not artful, its artless, and a cheap way to seem cooler and edgier. And his mad focus on close ups makes the Master of the House song almost incomprehensible, as we watch Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter maliciously pickpocket their guests, but only at the edge of the frame. It's still a good song, but the camera direction is as muddled and confusing as the fights in Batman Begins (2005).

For all the bickering, though, I did enjoy large portions of the film. Javert and Valjean's story is a great moral lesson on black-and-white versus redemption, and Fantine's descent to the bottom is heart wrenching. The revolutionaries hopeless battle is also hard to watch, and little Cosette's desire to just be loved is very touching. There's a lot of stuff that works here, and I want it known that the good does outweigh the bad. However, I get very frustrated when someone was so close to making a great movie, and let time cut them short. It was little more then a year ago that it was announced this movie was going to be made, and I feel Hooper had to be more economic in planning out his shots when dealing with the huge subject matter.

The live singing has been touted about this film for awhile now, and it works. The actors are allowed to live in the moment, and it lends a natural aesthetic to the whole picture. But perhaps it was this live singing that also lead to more unbroken takes, since many takes were most likely disimilar to the last.

Whatever the case, Les Miserables is a bit of an endurance. Fans of the musical should love parts of it, and newcomers may find an appreciation for this story. Of the three most recent operettas released, which includes The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Rent (2005) this one is the best. But that's faint praise.

Film Revues

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Top 50 Movies of All Time (2013 Edition)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Les Misérables (2012)

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