Les Mis

This week I finally had the chance to go and see Les Misérables. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I recall Anne Hathaway saying in an interview that the movie was an “up close and personal view” of the musical and I now understand what she meant. Firstly, let me say I have never actually seen the musical or read the book. I recall walking by the Les Mis theatre in both Paris and London many years ago and lamenting that at that time I couldn’t go because I could not afford it. My introduction to Les Mis came in 1992. During my first year at Acadia, I lived in residence and my roommate was music major. She went home a lot on the weekends and was kind enough to let me use her cassette player when she wasn’t there. Long and behold, she had a cassette of Les Mis. I started listening to it and was immediately hooked.

While watching the movie, I know the basic story line and I was able to (very quietly) sing along with the majority of the musical numbers. There were two things about the movie that struck me. Firstly was how the film was shot. I caught myself thinking that many stills could be Annie Leibovitz like photographs as the scenes were framed so beautifully. Being able to look into the actors eyes so closely resulted in an incredibly dramatic movie experience.

The second thing that struck me was how well the movie was cast. Hugh Jackman was amazing. Russell Crowe, although portraying a very believable Inspector Javert, unfortunately could not – sing – very – well. Two of my favourites, however, were Sacha Baren Cohen (Thénardier, Thernardier) and Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thenardier). They were both priceless. I didn’t even realize they were in the movie. Seeing Cohen in his first scene, I recall my face scrunching up as I thought “Really?” I am happy to say I was proved wrong.

This story hits all the themes - broken dreams, unrequited love, passion and sacrifice. I laughed and surprisingly, I even cried. Not has an ending got me so badly since the first time I saw Matthew die in the theatre production of Anne of Green Gables when I was eleven. I am looking forward to watching it again and will be curious to see the Oscar distribution a week from now.