#'cos

Les Mis thoughts beneath the read more. Spoilers ahoy, obviously

Stuff I loved: Basically everything with ensemble singing. At the End of the Day, Lovely Ladies (I spotted Alexia Khadime, hee), Do You Hear the People Sing, anything with the students. Frankly, in terms of vocals, if the ensemble and students hadn’t been so good, I don’t feel I would have enjoyed the film as much. The leads’ vocals were…hit and miss.

Anne Hathaway. Just as good as everyone says. I really liked in this version the switch of IDAD to after Lovely Ladies. I’m not sure it would work on stage, because you’re basically then going from one big ensemble piece to another big ensemble piece, but here it worked, and she really told the story. Her vocals were, again, not something that would work on stage, but she was certainly one of the more capable leads, and I did very much like her IDAD.

Eddie Redmayne. Romantic and a strong action-y lead, I didn’t once compare him (unfavourably) to Michael Ball which, frankly, I’ve done with pretty much every Marius I’ve seen on stage.

Hugh Jackman’s acting. He really met and exceeded my expectations, in terms of his acting. I was very impressed.

Enjolras’ death. Thank you, Tom Hooper, for keeping that iconic death sprawl. If there was one thing you were going to keep, that had to be it.

The orchestrations, and the visuals, although I really could have done with just a few more shots where I could actually see things like, you know, the set. There was a bit of close-up overload, and when it wasn’t in close-up, there was a lot of shaky camera work. But really that’s a quibble; visually it was generally stunning, and as I said, I loved the orchestra.

Samantha Barks. I love her Eponine (haters to the left) and I was so excited when she was cast. I’ve seen some criticisms that she ‘only’ showed the lovesick of Eponine? And yeah, I suppose so, but tbh that’s often all that comes across on stage anyway, and I also got the whole fact that her life is grim because of her parents – right from the off, actually. The way young Eponine was dragged around the inn by Thenardier and shown all his tricks kind of…made me think that she really never stood a chance. Anyway, I love her. And I loved her On My Own. I really do feel she did something different to what she did on stage and at the O2. (it’s possible I have a crush on her, too, just so you know). Also, they kept the hat. I love that hat. I want that hat. I’ve been thinking about trying to find a crochet pattern for something like it. There are a few on Ravelry that I’ve got my eye on.

Stuff I didn’t love: Sacha Baren-Cohen’s intermittent accent. Seriously, I didn’t dislike him in it, but the accent.

Some of the song cuts. I know, I know, they didn’t have a choice really if they didn’t want to end up with an over-long behemoth, but…yeah. My mother, who loves the show but doesn’t (yet) know it that well, didn’t notice it. But gyah, I did. Particularly Drink With Me and Turning. I do kind of feel Turning is actually quite important, because it allows the audience a moment to breathe after All The Deaths, but…yeah.

Some of the lyric changes. There were a couple of places where they literally just swapped two lines around, and to me that doesn’t make sense. Some of them absolutely do, for a film, and that’s fine, but a few of them…didn’t work, for me.

Amanda Seyfried. Eurgh, I wanted to like her (I kind of always want to like actresses playing Cosette because I do like Cosette as a character) but I just…didn’t. I’m afraid I was just too distracted by her voice to be able to focus on her acting. I think she did okay with the part, which we’re basically all agreed is a hard one (being so cut-down), but…yeah. Too distracted. Soooo much vibrato.

Things I’m on the fence about: Hugh Jackman’s voice. I so wanted it to be good, and at times it was, but I was so disappointed by his Bring Him Home. It was almost painful. And yet his Finale was wonderful, he did ‘old and dying’ very well. I enjoyed his Who Am I, and various other bits as well. So…yeah, on the fence. His acting does, I think, make up for the vocal deficiencies. But only on a watch. I would not want to listen to his Bring Him Home the way I want to listen to, say, Alfie Boe’s version, or Jonathan Williams, or John Owen-Jones – or, of course, Colm Wilkinson’s. Other songs, possibly, but I doubt it.

Russell Crowe. I’d heard bad things, and thought bad things when I saw clips and trailers and things, and…his voice actually grew on me, and his acting wasn’t bad. But I felt he was concentrating quite hard on singing the words, and the lines, and the notes (sort of). So hard that there was less room for acting. Sort of the opposite of Jackman, who I felt was focusing more on the acting and less on the singing. So yeah, his voice wasn’t as bad as I feared, but I wish I’d felt he was more comfortable with it.

Some of the song order changes. Some of it worked really well (like putting IDAD after Lovely Ladies), and some of it I’m sure I feel odd about because I know the show so well, but yeah. Some of it was just… ‘why? I don’t understand?’ but as I said, that’s probably primarily because I’m so used to the stage show.