At the very end of its theatrical release schedule, I have finally gone to see Les Miserables. To be honest, I'm pretty impressed with myself because I managed to remain completely information-free about the whole thing. As in, I knew nothing whatsoever
about the book, the musical or the movie prior to actually watching it. In fact, here is the sum total of my Les Mis background knowledge as of this morning.
It's a musical.
It's set in France.
Anne Hathaway plays a prostitute who gets her hair cut off for some reason
There are some cute young guys that Tumblr seems excited about. They might be revolutionaries?
Also,
I sort of assumed that because it was categorised in my head as "a
musical", there would be a) some spoken dialogue, and b) dancing. Wrong
on both counts, but NBD.
Anyway, it was definitely the movie to watch if
you like your onscreen emotions turned up to 11 on the
Overwrought-o-meter, and are OK with the camera being rammed up Hugh
Jackman's nose at all times. Like seriously, chill out with the
close-ups. People had actually warned me about this beforehand and I was
all, "No, what do I know about cinematography? I won't notice." But no,
I noticed. It was like someone's parents were there with a camcorder,
trying to zoom in on every important moment of their kid's school play.
ZOOM IN MORE ON ANNE HATHAWAY'S SNOTTY NOSE WHILE SHE'S CRYING!! ZOOM IN
MORE ON HUGH JACKMAN'S FACE WHILE HE'S EMOTING ABOUT GOD!! ZOOM IN MORE ON THIS TRAGIC STARVING KID WHO DOESN'T HAVE ANY FACIAL SORES LIKE THE OTHER KIDS, BECAUSE SHE'S THE STAR! etc etc.
The main thing I got from Les Mis, though, was that Russell Crowe's Javert is A+++ hilarious. Like, every time
he came onscreen I started laughing uncontrollably because he was 100%
straight-up doing an impression of when Harry was obsessively stalking
Draco in Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince. JAVERT JUST REALLY WANTS
TO CHAIN UP THAT TALL, SWEATY, MUSCULAR CRIMINAL, OK? HE WANTS TO CHAIN
HIM UP AND CONTROL HIM AND PUNISH HIM FOR HIS SINS
I
couldn't help imagining what all the other cops must think of Javert.
Javert thinks he's the most upstanding, hard-working, god-fearing guy in the entire police
force, but the other cops totally talk about him behind his back: Do you know that Inspector Javert guy who always looks like he hasn't
showered in a week, and stands slightly too close when he's talking to you? Yeah, yeah, he's literally been stalking this
random ex-con for like thirty fucking years. Not like a murderer or
anything. This guy stole some bread and now Javert's all up in
his grill, following him around the country, I don't even know. One time
I went to his house to pick up some paperwork and it was just a
mattress bed on the floor with Wanted posters of Jean Valjean taped all over the walls, the ceiling, the windows, every-fucking-where. Some things you just don't want to know, you know?
Aside from the roiling tide of Javert's sweat and/or self-loathing obsession with that evil, villainous thief who totally has the muscle power to lift an entire cart on one shoulder, I... guess there was some other stuff in the movie? Like, Anne Hathaway was good but I wouldn't personally have given her an Oscar for Fantine. But then again, I would have given her an Oscar for Rachel Getting Married in 2009, so all's well that ends well. I admit I started to feel a little tired whenever Helena Bonham Carter came onscreen, because she really does play herself in every role now, and not necessarily in a good way. Philosophically speaking I don't have anything against never brushing your hair, but if you're an actor it's kind of helpful to look slightly different in each role, you know? Whereas Helena Bonham Carter, charming though she is, looks like she's been wearing her own clothes, hair and makeup in every role she's played in the past 5 years.
Someone who knows more about the literary merits and background of Les Mis will probably have to explain to me just what the impact of the story is meant to be. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but all I thought when I came out of the cinema was "revolutions are pointless, and there are definitely going to be food poverty riots in real life, near where I live, in the near future". The fact is that I don't actually think revolutions/direct action/political protests are pointless in the slightest, but all the cute young idealist boys in Les Mis certainly were hideously familiar. Particularly Marius. It's very difficult to warm to a poor-little-rich-boy character in a movie where are starving on the streets in every scene -- even if he does have cute freckles and the guileless expression of an anime character.