B
Babydoll
Guest
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
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 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.
I liked Eddie Redmayne's acting, but his singing 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).
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
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
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.
I liked Eddie Redmayne's acting, but his singing
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).
