[au ciné] les misérables

LES MISÉRABLES
Director: Tom Hooper
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe
Year released: 2012/2013

"I had a dream my life would be 

so different from this hell I'm living

so different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed"

It's undeniable that Les Misérables might be one of the most famous and successful musicals. That's why I assume many of the songs in this musical have become so popular. Although it's irritating, but I somehow understand if the people sit next to me cannot help themselves but to sing along "I Dreamed a Dream" or even "A Heart Full of Love".

Even so, musical is not for everyone. According to a friend who hates this movie and all movies that involve singing as the dialogues, unlike the spoken-dialogue movies (you know what I mean!), musicals lack of emotions and I guess that made Tom Hooper decide to record all the singing live. Pardon my musical knowledge, but when I watched this movie and listened to how Jackman (and some others) sang most of the songs in a very staccato-esque style (Alright, no sure this term does exist). It's like his (their) voice is stamping and it makes it more emotional than actually just talking. HAHAHA. I hope I didn't talk nonsense.

Anyway, if you ask me whether I like the movie? I must say I'm caught in between. In my opinion, Tom Hooper's take on the musical works partially on smaller scenes, like when Fantine sang about her dying dream, Eponine sang her one-way love or even Valjean's repentance. They're all very emotional, the scenes were greatly shot. Somehow when it comes to big grandeur scene, like the battles, the beginning of the riot, they all kind of fell short, maybe except the opening scene.

So yeah, I don't think it's a snub that Hooper didn't any directing nomination, but I'm truly glad that Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman did. The truest snub here would be Samantha Banks. She should be nominated, people!

Would I recommend the movie? Let's put it this way, if you like it, you're probably going to watch it over and over again. If you like it, you know the songs by heart and you cannot help yourself not to sing it while it's one, people probably are going to hate for it. If you're not into musicals, like this friend of mine I quote, it's probably a very torturing 150 minutes.