It's Christmas Day and I just spent the last 2 1/2 hours gripping the arm of the stranger sitting beside me in a sold-out movie theater.  Les Misérables, smash musical based on the novel of the same name came to the big screen today and it's everything I hoped it would be.  

Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper's cast includes Hugh Jackman (Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), and Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the bumbling Thénardiers.  Other supporting roles from musical veterans Samantha Barks (Éponine), Colm Wilkinson (Bishop of Digne), and Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) are well cast.

Set in early 19th century France, the story follows the life of ex-con Jean Valjean.  After breaking his parole, redemption-seeking Valjean assumes a new identity and adopts the recently orphaned Cosette.  Through the years, relentless Inspector Javert hunts Valjean to return him to prison, but the 1832 anti-monarchist uprising in Paris threatens to derail everyone's plans.

Hooper made the unconventional call to allow his actors to sing their scenes live during filming instead of dubbing them in later, forcing the orchestration to follow the singers' leads through expressive scenes that felt much more organic.  Much has been speculated about whether "regular actors" would be up to the task of this huge musical, but I would not be alone in arguing that Hathaway's raw rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" was the highlight of the film, delivering on the movie trailer's promise in every possible way.


While the production and costume design were gorgeous, some key sequences were choppily edited, jerking and cutting the camera around in the mode du jour without any regard for my anonymous friend and me stuck on the far right side of the 3rd row from the front.  Certain major moments felt watered down, but perhaps it was the unexpected impact of solos like Redmayne's "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" which had never captured my attention in live performance before that completely blew me away.  Hooper used extreme closeups during these intense moments which some critics disliked.  I absolutely disagree: it pulled you into their anguish perfectly.

 

I was also very pleasantly surprised by Seyfried and Jackman's performances, and as Madame Thénardier has always been a favourite of mine, Bonham Carter could never disappoint.  Inspector Javert is a complex character sometimes underplayed as the unidimensional blind eye of the law, but Crowe did an admirable job of displaying Javert's crisis of conscience as the story approached its climax.  Baron Cohen's take on Thénardier was delightfully comical, but I was distracted by his earlier role of "Borat": he seemed too tame in (unfair) comparison.

Will theater purists approve? Those who've had the privilege to see gifted singers who can genuinely act (and this is rare) may argue that a live performance will always trump the big screen. Neither will the musical-hating boyfriends and brothers-in-law dragged to the cinema with vague promises of a visit to Hooters afterward, as 99.9% of the movie is performed in song.  

For the rest of us, bring plenty of tissues and arrive early for the chance of a better seat.  This Oscar-eligible movie is, in my humble opinion, must-see.