Les Misérables

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The movie every musical fanboy/girl is dying for ;)

As a music theatre geek who knows the songs of Les Miz by heart and usually rants about how movie versions of Broadway/West End musicals are always awful, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

If you don't want spoilers, skip the next paragraphs. ;)

I thought Anne Hathaway was going to be really sucky because, let's face it, no one is going to beat Patti LuPone as Fantine, but I actually liked it. Her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" was not as beautiful as Patti's or Lea Salonga's, but it was really heartbreaking and really did transmit all the pain Fantine was going through in my opinion.

And Amanda :luv: Fine, so her vibrato was not perfect, but she's a terribly charming actress and she can pull off musicals very well (remember Mamma Mia!?). I would have liked Jayne Wisener to be cast as Cosette instead though, because she has the perfect looks and her voice is simply angelic.

I was very disappointed about Hugh Jackman though, and ironically, I thought he would do the best because of his previous Broadway performances. However, his rendition of "Who am I" especially, lacked the depth and power Colm Wilkinson had set as the standard for Jean Valjean. Hugh's "Who am I" was meh :meh: in my opinion. I just didn't feel that change Jean Valjean is supposed to go through, I didn't feel that he was truly changing and sacrificing by revealing his darkest secret for the good of someone else. I didn't feel the feeling of sacrifice in Hugh's voice. It just wasn't there.

I also liked Samantha Barks as Éponine, and I did not expect it because she wasn't really good at the 25th Anniversary Concert in 2010. However, in the movie she seems to be very heartbroken, just like Éponine should be. But still no match for Lea Salonga. :p

I liked Eddie Redmayne's acting, but his singing :meh: I have to say I even prefered Nick Jonas's Marius, if we count vocals only (makes sense, Eddie is an actor and Nick is a singer).

So, my conclusion: a very beautiful movie, definitely worth watching, expect to be touched and have Kleenex on hand, it deserves the Oscar nominations, but don't expect it to be better than the theatre version (same case for most of the modern stage to movie adaptations).
 
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Thanks for this summary....I've been debating whether or not to see this, mostly I'd be curious to see how Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried fared...I'm glad you enjoyed it though :)
 
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I've been waiting for this thread!
This was the best musical (film) I've ever seen! Loved Anne's "I Dreamed a Dream." The little kid that played Gavroche was perfect, and I loved Enjolras. I thought Hugh was nice, and it was awesome that Colm Wilkinson played Monsignor. Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen were great too. Loved Samantha Barks, and Eddie Redmayne made me hate Marius a little less than usual. I liked Crowe as Jevert too. I'm reading the books now. Epic film.

Also, am I alone in thinking Isabelle Allen looks like a baby Gemma Ward?
 
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I've been waiting for this thread!
This was the best musical (film) I've ever seen! Loved Anne's "I Dreamed a Dream." The little kid that played Gavroche was perfect, and I loved Enjolras. I thought Hugh was nice, and it was awesome that Colm Wilkinson played Monsignor. Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen were great too. Loved Samantha Barks, and Eddie Redmayne made me hate Marius a little less than usual. I liked Crowe as Jevert too. I'm reading the books now. Epic film.

Also, am I alone in thinking Isabelle Allen looks like a baby Gemma Ward?

Personally I don't think it was the best musical film (I believe musicals were made better during the Golden Age of Hollywood, they have lost certain charm nowadays), but agree on the rest except on Hugh (I wouldn't have liked Eddie as Marius that much but he was really cute when he sang "A Heart Full of Love" with Amanda :p).

And YES Isabelle Allen looks a lot like a baby Gemma.
 
I liked Eddie Redmayne's acting, but his singing :meh: I have to say I even prefered Nick Jonas's Marius, if we count vocals only (makes sense, Eddie is an actor and Nick is a singer).

I take this back. I just listened to Nick's rendition of "A Little Fall of Rain" and realised it sucked more than I remembered. :hmm: Although his "A Heart Full of Love" is really good, it's not as good as I remembered.

Michael Ball is the best Marius anyway, but Eddie was very cute and still better than Nick.
 
Why wasnt lea michele cast as fantine? Her voice is so perfect for it, she was actually in it, so wtf? I havent seen the movie yet but I saw the youtube teaser and hathaway on snl and she blows. Overacting with a terrible voice. I dont understand why people make such a big deal out of her.
 
I saw this movie yesterday and I loved it. At first I thought I wouldn't like it that much but I think it just kept getting better and better. My favorite part was the scenes with the revolution and the songs in those scenes. This might sound odd considering who he played in the movie but I think my favorite person was Russell Crowe, to be honest I didn't really like Anne Hathaway that much but that's probably because I didn't really like her character.
 
OMG EDDIE REDMAYNE HAS DONE BROADWAY BEFORE. Not only that. Broadway AND West End (not musicals though, just plays). How did I not know that??? :wtf:
And not only that but he has won a FREAKING TONY and a FREAKING LAURENCE OLIVIER (and is the face of Burberry).

Broadway actor, Les Mis film adaptation AND models?

Freaking love him now. :luv:
 
Why wasnt lea michele cast as fantine? Her voice is so perfect for it, she was actually in it, so wtf? I havent seen the movie yet but I saw the youtube teaser and hathaway on snl and she blows. Overacting with a terrible voice. I dont understand why people make such a big deal out of her.

Maybe because Lea is a soprano and the original Fantine is supposed to be a mezzo-soprano (but yes, she has a way better voice than Hathaway). They could have changed the pitch like they did when Lea Salonga played that role, but to be honest I don't see Lea Michele as Fantine. Maybe because Lea doesn't look very... Fantine-ish, I don't know. I would have liked them to cast someone who has had a lot of Broadway experience and better vocals, I wanted Sutton Foster (she was Éponine's understudy in 2000 before she became a huge Broadway star).

And everyone is praising Anne because her performance is the most "truthful" and "selfless" because she does it showing "emotion" rather than "making it sound pretty", which is not bad, but Patti LuPone and Lea Salonga could show real emotion without doing so many whimpers and cries, they carried the pain in their voice. So I agree with you that people are making too big of a deal about Anne's performance.
 
Maybe because Lea is a soprano and the original Fantine is supposed to be a mezzo-soprano (but yes, she has a way better voice than Hathaway). They could have changed the pitch like they did when Lea Salonga played that role, but to be honest I don't see Lea Michele as Fantine. Maybe because Lea doesn't look very... Fantine-ish, I don't know. I would have liked them to cast someone who has had a lot of Broadway experience and better vocals, I wanted Sutton Foster (she was Éponine's understudy in 2000 before she became a huge Broadway star).

And everyone is praising Anne because her performance is the most "truthful" and "selfless" because she does it showing "emotion" rather than "making it sound pretty", which is not bad, but Patti LuPone and Lea Salonga could show real emotion without doing so many whimpers and cries, they carried the pain in their voice. So I agree with you that people are making too big of a deal about Anne's performance.

I understand what you are saying, but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnkpnCMwy_w ...it's just so much better. also, the reason why I specifically bring up her and not others is because she got really famous doing glee, so she would still have a lot of star power that would benefit the cast.
 
OK, I saw it again, and yeah...didn't like Hugh as Valjean. I think I just really wanted to like it. Haha.
 
Oh noooooooooooo

Hugh did NOT just win the Golden Globe for best actor in comedy/musical

:facepalm:

JUPK
 
We ought to congratulate Samantha Barks for being able to sing in that tight, tight corset.