The LES MIS movie is much better than I remembered (2024 re-release)

LES MIS is playing in select Dolby cinemas this week after recently being remastered. I saw it on opening day in 2012, didn’t like, and haven’t considered watching it since then. 

What a pleasant surprise.

Maybe it’s just the dearth of GOOD movie musical adaptations recently, but I was entirely swept away. It doesn’t work for every minute of the runtime, but the majority of it is a strong and satisfying film.

It looks spectacular. The production design and little details are great, it doesn’t overdo the CG, and it’s shot on 35mm film. After so many bad recent movie musicals with shiny digital photography, it was refreshing to see real craftsmanship, directed by someone who actually had a take on the material. Feels like a cross between a war epic and a Merchant/Ivory picture –– not a music video or an MGM musical or a Bob Fosse film. 

Redmayne, Hathaway, Barks, Tveit, and little Cosette are rock solid. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are having a ball. Colm Wilkinson’s presence brings me to tears. I even liked Russell Crowe better than I remembered…I wouldn’t have cast him, but for the first time it caused me to view Javert as a character who's on the spectrum.

The insurmountable problems are with some of the song elements: the orchestrations, the casting, the live singing. Hugh has never been vocally right for this role, but had Hooper given the film 10% more musical theatre energy and allowed for a greater mix of recording studio vocals vs live vocals, AND put more trust in the original orchestrations, I think a lot of their problems would have been solved.

Worth a watch if you, like me, haven’t seen it in 11+ years. (Yes, it’s been that long since it came out )

Updated On: 2/27/24 at 10:11 PM

I similarly rewatched the Phantom of the Opera movie recently and found that to be better than I remembered too. I can't remember why I disliked it so much when it was first released. I guess after hearing Russell Crowe sing Javert, Gerard Butler doesn't sound so bad.

Crowe absolutely plays Javert as a misguided and somewhat broken weirdo. It’s refreshing when compared to the hyper competent force of nature he appears to be in the stage show. 

I have always loved the second half of Les Miz, but didn’t like the first half, mostly due toRussell Crowe.  I will have to give it another look.

Re Phantom, I always thought it was a lot better than the general consensus.  Not perfect, starting with Patrick Wilson’s hair and including the key scene away from the Opera House.  I thought Gerard Butler was outstanding and the entire cast was terrific…no exceptions.  I know others will groan, but I LOVED MinnieDriver’s over-the-top Carlotta.  I do not know if she did her own singing, but Emmy Robson was lovely.  I watched it recently and still think it worked. 
 

Finally, on a lark, last week I turned on A Chorus Line, which just showed up one one of the streamers (MAX???).  First of all, I never thought ACL was the great musical it has been declared to be.  I liked it, but felt it was wildly overrated.  I originally saw the movie when it first came out, and I thought it was atrociously bad.  When I watched it last week, my opinion was not changed on the underlying work, and I still think the movie is not good, e.g., I never thought the first scene was going to end.  But I found that, with very low expectations, I actually enjoyed it.  I had figured 20 minutes and out, but watched it to the end.  This time, I liked Caissie’s number and thought that it was really smart to give her ‘What I Did For Love’.

Now, if someone can make The Producers, The Wiz, and On a Clear Day watchable (I tried in the last six months or so), that would be a real accomplishment.

I loved the Les Miserables movie.  Saw it seven times in the theater. I thought the look of the movie was perfect in terms of the colors, the type of shots, the costuming... all of it worked. 

As for the Phantom movie. Hmmm.  As someone who saw the original Broadway Phantom 90 times, London once, original tour five times, new tour four times, college production once, Las Vegas Phantom 3 times, high school production twice, I can confidently say that the Phantom movie had the wrong look to it, the wrong color scheme, the wrong casting, the wrong everything. It should have looked more like a horror Moulin Rouge and instead it looks like it was directed and shot by the crew of House Hunters. 

I never got the hate for the LM film, Crowe excluded. Sure, the closeups were a bit much, but I enjoyed it greatly. 

It must be eleven years since I’ve seen it too, but I remember the accents bothering me. Why are they all British? This is France. Why do the horrible Thenardiers have lower class Cockney accents, but Saint Fantine sounds like an aristocrat from Downton Abbey? Seems kinda classist.

Also, yeah, the close ups, the live singing. If you have no respect for movie musicals in the first place, why direct one?

 

 

Oh Thenardier doesn't have a cockney accent –– Cohen pulls a Lumiere and is the only one in the film doing a French accent (a fairly accurate one at that).

Cohen puts on a French accent when he is fleecing guests at the inn, but drops it when he’s with his own people. The implication is that “Thenardier the French innkeeper” is just another of the personas he has put on over the years, not his true identity. (Which, if I recall, was implied in the book as well.)

CATSNYrevival said: "I similarly rewatched the Phantom of the Opera movie recently and found that to be better than I remembered too. I can't remember why I disliked it so much when it was first released."

I'm the opposite. I really loved Joel Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera when I first saw it back in middle school. Although when I last watched it almost a year ago, it really did not hold up for me at all. You can read my full thoughts in the link below.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004) Movie Review

Updated On: 2/28/24 at 08:37 AM

Prompted by this thread, I watched it again at home yesterday, and I found Amanda Seyfried's singing voice almost as unpleasant as Crowe's. Jackman still steals the show.

What class is Fantine? Why does Eponine have a different accent to her parents?

I don't really care about the accents in LES MIS. Most of the film cast was from Britain or Australia (Hathaway/Seyfriend/Tveit aside), the director was British, and it was filmed in England. Didn't most actors use English accents on Broadway/tour, too? Probably a Cameron thing + the nature of it being popularized in London.

It's funny how some musicals often have the cast use English accents even when it's not set in England (Sound of Music, Night Music, etc). Anglophilia?