Every year, when the year comes to a close, the quality of movies at the theater is top-notch as Oscar season begins to heat up. In 2009, audiences were treated to the record-breaking epic known as Avatar. In 2010, directors Joel and Ethan Coen returned with perhaps their best film to date in True Grit, and in 2011, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hit theaters. This year's highlight is Les Miserables.
Having seen the Broadway production of Les Mis and being absolutely blown away by it, I've never went into a movie with higher expectations. However, after watching the movie, I've never left the theater so amazed and emotional.
Les Miserables is the best movie of 2012!
With a piece so beloved worldwide and the die hard fans knowing all the songs by heart, you needed a special cast to pull off what they wanted to pull off, and every casting choice made in this movie is picture perfect. Playing the protagonist Jean Valjean, Hugh Jackman is clearly in his element. This role is, no doubt about it, his best work to date and a career-defining performance. Jackman brings the intensity and emotion that you expect from Valjean as we follow his life-long journey. We become so connected to Jackman's character that we almost forget that Jackman is the actor. From the opening scene where he banters back in forth with Russell Crowe to his best song of the film, "Bring Him Home," to the ever-so emotional finale, Jackman is phenomenal and definitely deserving of an Oscar nomination if not a win.
The supporting cast matches Jackman toe-to-toe. As Inspector Javert, Russell Crowe, while not the best singer in the world, stands his ground and delivers a very solid performance. Honestly, Crowe is the weakest singer here but not because he can't sing, but because everyone around him sings like angels. His crowning achievement come early on in the movie with his prayer, "Stars." Crowe's physical presence throughout the film is perfect villany, and we literally can't stand Javert by the end of the movie, the mark of a fantatsic villain.
Comedic relief in a film like Les Mis needed to be extraordinary. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are hilarious in their roles as the innkeeper and his wife. The song, "Master of the House," needed to be over the top and bring a smile on people's face accompanied with laughter, and it most definitely was. Cohen and Carter fit the roles beautifully so much so that I laughed every time I saw them whether they were funny or not. I couldn't wait to hear what they'd say next, a mark of excellent comedy.
Les Miserables stars a handful of actors that are just getting started in their career, and every single one of them delivers. Samantha Barks, playing Eponine, originally played this role in the stage adaption of the musical, and that fact is evident when she delivers "On My Own" with power and emotion that I never expected from such a young actress. As she holds on for dear life in her final ballad, "A Little Fall of Rain," you truly feel for Eponine and the life she has been forced to live, and you must credit Barks for that.
The relationship between Cosette and Marius needed to be special and something the audience can latch on to throughout the story, and if that were to be pulled off, you needed two very talented actors. Of course, Les Mis had them in the form of Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne. Seyfried has very limited screen time, but when she's on the screen, her presence is felt, especially in her first song with Marius, "A Heart Full of Love." Redmayne has a little more screen time, and he goes above and beyond what anyone really expected from him. Of all the younger cast members, Redmayne's future is probably the brighest because of the skill he showed here. When the battered and regretful Marius belts out "Empty Chair at Empty Tables," your body will probably get chills because of the way Redmayne delivers it.
With an ensemble performing at such a high level, it makes it difficult to declare an actor as a "standout." However, in Les Mis, Anne Hathaway steals the show and most definitely is the standout. The race for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars this year is over. Hathaway should start writing her speech now. Let's not even bother wasting our time over the next few months debating it. Hathaway wins. Hands down, no questions asked. As Fantine, Hathaway gives one of the best performances I''ve ever had the priviledge of watching. When she rises to sing "I Dreamed a Dream," I was speechless. I couldn't believe what I just saw, and the amazing part is that she gets a total of maybe fifteen minutes of screen time. She's that good.
While the cast was great, I also give a lot of credit to the film's director, Tom Hooper. It took a lot of guts to simply say that he wanted to adapt this musical to the screen. Then, once he did that, it took a lot of guts to cast the actors that he did. After all that, then you say you want your actors to sing live. Typically for a musical, actors would go into a recording studio and record their songs months before filming began. The actors would then start filming with the playback of that pre-recorded song playing and then have to lip-sync with the track. Hooper decided to take a different approach, having all his actors sing live on set as if the songs are just the dialogue for a normal movie, and that decision is a stroke of absolute genius. Because of this, the audience truly experiences every emotion that the movie is trying to portray, an extremely rare feat.
I fully expected Les Miserables to be great. I didn't expect it to leave me speechless and in such awe. Les Mis is, by far, the best movie of 2012, and perhaps one of the best of all-time.
Dream the dream.
Go see Les Miserables.......now!
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