Best Picture #3: LES MISERABLES (2012)

No matter what anyone has to say about Django Unchained, Les Miserables is sure to be the most polarizing movie of the Oscar season.  For the most part, movie musicals have a niche audience nowadays: there are those who will accept a movie in which the characters sing and dance their way through the plot, and those who won't.  Fans of Victor Hugo's novel may not be terribly pleased with the boiling down of his epic to its essentials (Roger Ebert was not a fan).  Like Joel Schumacher's surprisingly decent-for-what-it-is movie version of The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables will probably not interest those who aren't familiar with or fond of the stage musical.  But those who appreciate it will find the musical beautifully transferred to the screen, with a splendid production and an excellent cast.

In early 19th-century France, prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is released from prison after serving a 19-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread.  After a kind priest does him a good deed, he assumes a new identity as mayor of a small town and pledges to live a good honest life.  When he overlooks the poor treatment of a seamstress (Anne Hathaway) who works for him, he pledges to devote the rest of his life to caring for her daughter, Cosette.  However, he must be careful to avoid the pursuit of police captain Javert (Russell Crowe), who is after him for breaking parole and is the only man who recognizes him for who he used to be.

Much of the second half of the film takes place against the backdrop of the June Rebellion of 1832, in which Paris Republicans fought royalist soldiers in the streets.  Valjean finds himself in the center of the revolution, fighting at the side of young Marius (Eddie Redmayne), who has fallen head over heels in love with the now-grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried).

Though the movie gives only a Cliff's Notes version of the historical event at its center, its place in the story is clear.  The musical's theme is of how selflessness can lend meaning to a life; Valjean's life means nothing until he dedicates it to caring for Cosette, and Marius and his soldiers are given purpose with their dedication to the rebellion.  Javert, by contrast, is a man of no compassion and only laws, and his frustration that any criminal could grow to be so kind leads to his downfall.

The major difference between the stage musical and the movie, sure to be debated among fans, is the quality of singing voices.  The stage musical is usually populated by singers who act; the necessary change that director Tom Hooper has made is to cast actors who sing instead.  The actors for the most part do not have Broadway-quality voices.  The exceptions are Jackman, who's a veteran of many musicals, and Samantha Barks, who plays Marius's friend Eponine and delivers a heartbreaking rendition of "On My Own" (and thankfully beat out Taylor Swift for the part).

All the other actors sing like actors, which is perfectly fine.  A movie requires a more intimate vocal interpretation than a stage show does, and the cast all deliver fine vocal performances.  Crowe in particular has taken a lot of flack for his lackluster singing voice; actually, he's very good, and his limitations as a singer don't count against his embodiment of the driven, staunch Javert.  The only players who disappoint are Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, who as the "Master of the House" and his wife are not particularly bad, but fail to bring energy to a couple of fairly lamely written comic relief parts.

Hooper's direction of the material is a balance between the epic and the intimate.  The production is grand, the scenery lush, the music gorgeous and sweeping.  But Hooper doesn't take a larger-than-life approach to his characters; he prefers long takes with limited focus (most of the numbers were recorded live on set).  For the key number "I Dreamed a Dream," delivered beautifully by Ms. Hathaway, Hooper never once pulls the camera away from her face as we witness her destruction before our very eyes.

Though it will certainly have its detractors, Les Mis is quite good.  At a time when it couldn't have been easy to make a big-budgeted production of a lavish musical, Tom Hooper has gotten it done.

*** 1/2 out of ****