Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) has served 19 years of hard labour in France. By 1815 his sentence is up, and police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) hands him his parole papers, warning him that if he refuses to abide by the terms of his parole, he will find himself arrested again.
But Valjean has dreams of a better life. Eight years later, he has assumed a new identity, and has become Mayor of Monteuil, and is in charge of a local factory.
One of the girls who works in the factory, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), is sending as much money as she can to an innkeeper (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his wife (Helena Bonham Carter), who are caring for her young daughter Cosette. But when she loses her job, and is forced to live on the streets, making whatever money she can in whatever way she can (and it isn’t pretty), things go from bad to worse.
If that wasn’t enough, Javert is certain he recognises Valjean, and threatens to bring his whole facade crashing down.
The timeline advances yet again, and we find ourselves at the beginnings of revolution in Paris, involving many young men (and women), including young Marius (Eddie Redmayne), who has his eyes on now-grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried). But any revolution doesn’t come without sacrifice, and a great deal of loss.
I really don’t want to say any more about the plot. Sure, the musical has been around for some time now (and of course the novel for even longer!) and the film isn’t exactly a new release, but still, if you haven’t seen it yet, I don’t want to spoil anything for you; you really need to experience it for yourself without knowing everything about it beforehand.
Of course, as with any musical film review, I need to talk about the music first of all. All I can say is that it is absolutely fantastic. The entire musical (and it is almost entirely through-sung, with only a few portions of spoken dialogue) is fabulous. Many of the songs serve primarily to advance the plot (as with recitative sections of an opera) but even these songs are cleverly written, with sensational music, and cleverly written lyrics with brilliant rhyme schemes throughout.
When it came to making this film, the filmmakers tried something very different. Rather than pre-recording the songs, and having the actors mime to a playback track on set (as virtually every other film musical has ever been done before), the actors sang live on set, accompanied in an earpiece by a rehearsal pianist. The entire score was then reorchestrated and recorded to fit to the timings of the cast’s performances, which allowed for much greater expression and nuance from the performers.
And this difference has a very clear effect on the performances. You will know what I am talking about when you see Hugh Jackman’s inner wrestling with himself going on as he sings ‘Who am I’, or when you are brought to tears along with Anne Hathaway as she sobs her way through ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ with a rawness that could never have been achieved if they had been miming to a pre-recorded track.
Eve Stewart’s production design, and Paco Delgado’s magnificent costumes, absolutely make this film, and the locations and characters, come alive. There is a real grittiness to the environment, and a bleakness to the landscape that allows the viewer to feel as though they are right there in the middle of everything that is going on.
The cinematography, by Danny Cohen, is absolutely stunning; the scope of this massive production is captured so beautifully on screen. There are many interesting contrasts between light and dark throughout the entire piece, and these are all done with such skill as to make it look effortless (and, believe me, it isn’t effortless).
Director Tom Hooper has made an incredible film here, that captures the stunning stage musical on which it is based, but also stands on its own as a film. If you haven’t seen it yet, seriously, you need to see it. I can never see this film too many times.
10 out of 10.
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