Les Misérables (2012)

• Year: 2012
• Released: 25 Dec 2012
• Country: United Kingdom, United States
• Adwords: Won 3 Oscars. 85 wins & 177 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Les_Miserables
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/les-miserables
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
• Runtime: 158 min
• Writer: William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg
• Director: Tom Hooper
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway
• Keywords: musical, 19th century, wedding, robbery, france,

	7.5/10
	63/100

Les Misérables Storyline

The story follows former prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), who, after being released from the watchful eye of police officer Javert (Russell Crowe), is unable to find work because of his status as an ex-convict. He eventually steals from a local church, but when apprehended, the priest claims that Valjean was given the valuables. This triggers a change in Valjean, and he constructs a new identity for himself as a pillar of society and a local businessman. Years later, he adopts a young girl named Cosette, whose mother Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a former employee of his, became a prostitute and died a horrible death in the gutters after being fired. As the years progress and the Paris Student Rebellion begins to foment, a grown Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) falls for a passionate revolutionary named Marius (Eddie Redmayne), while Javert begins to close in again on Valjean’s secret past.

Les Misérables Play trailer

Les Misérables Photos

Les Misérables Torrents Download

Les Misérables Subtitles Download

Les Misérables Movie Reviews

Why We Pay to Watch Others Suffer

Les Miserables is very old fashioned entertainment. It’s a series of crescendo moments with no build-up, no backstory, no pause. It’s like eating just the topping of the pecan pie, and not bothering with the crust or filling. We were just ten minutes into the movie when I had to look at my watch and ask, okay, how long can they keep this up? Climax after climax, plot twist after plot twist, tearjerking scene after tearjerking scene. Oceans! Mountains! Punishment! Suffering! Religion! Redemption! Will there be a break for lunch? Will we be able to catch our breath?

If you can watch this film without crying, I don’t want to know you. The woman behind me was on the edge of her seat, not just because I smell good. The audience at the 10:40 a.m. matinée – the theater was packed – applauded at the end, and was very slow to leave the theater, even as the closing credits rolled.

Typical of big, fat, nineteenth-century novels, there are numerous implausible coincidences that drive the plot. These coincidences took me out of the movie, but that was a good thing. The human suffering on screen was overwhelming: suicide, enslavement, exploitation of living humans’ body parts, prostitution, disease, spite, malice, child abuse, starvation, sadism, a dying man escaping through very graphic sewerage. I did have to repeat to myself, “This is only a movie” even as tears streamed down my cheeks.

Jean Valjean is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving children. He slaves for twenty years. He hauls a massive, capsized sailing ship. The scene does look like obviously fake CGI, but that doesn’t make it any less gut wrenching. The workers sing, “You’ll always be a slave. You are standing in your grave.” They are the men we see in Sebastiao Salgado photographs of Third World laborers. They are Ilya Repin’s “Barge Haulers on the Volga.” Valjean’s nemesis is the crazily obsessive policeman, Javert. They spar throughout the film, as Valjean’s fate rises and falls and rises and falls and rises … you get the idea.

A story this big, this broad, and this implausible requires one hundred percent commitment from the performers. Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean is superb. He believes. He emotes. He is as big as the story itself. Jackman is the heart and soul of “Les Miserables.” I loved him. Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen – they all had me convinced. Russell Crowe was a surprising disappointment. He’s a brilliant actor and I kept waiting for him to bring some fire, some ice, some power, some insight to Javert, the obsessive and punitive policeman who mercilessly hounds Jean Valjean. I wanted a memorable moment that would make me feel that Crowe’s performance brought Javert to intimate life for me. That moment did not arrive.

I wondered while watching this movie whether it will be embraced by the political left or the political right. It is a deeply and unashamedly Christian film. A Catholic priest, emulating Jesus, is the catalyst. Valjean spends the rest of the film working to live up to the priest’s Biblical example. “Les Miserable” is leftist in that it depicts the poor rising up, but then the poor fail their own putative saviors, and allow them to be massacred, alone. Javert, representing law and order, is a monster. The film’s brief glimpse of heaven is like some limousine liberal’s fantasy.

I think “Les Miserables” is as popular as it is for the same reason that Cinderella is so popular. When “Les Miserable” was a stage play, tickets were a very expensive and difficult to acquire luxury. It is ironic that a play about the wretched of the earth would be such a luxury entertainment. Why do we enjoy watching people much poorer and more desperate than we will ever be? Why do we pay for the privilege? Because we all see ourselves in Cinderella, in Jean Valjean, no matter how lucky we are. I’ll certainly never stand in cold sea water with iron shackles around my wrists and neck, overseen by a cold sadist like Javert. But, along with millions of others, I saw my own struggles in Valjean, and thanked God that I didn’t have it as bad as he. If Jean Valjean can go on, I can, too!

I wish the songs had been a tad better. There are a couple of good ones, “I dreamed a dream” and “Do you hear the people sing?” All the actors sing very well. Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman sing especially well.

It’s good….the play is just better.

The movie version of “Les Misérables” is a hard sell to me, as I was simply blown away when I saw the play in London. I sat in the second row, center, and it just doesn’t get any better than that. To this day, it’s one of the best plays I have seen–and I have been to Broadway on quite a few occasions and seen many top plays. I am pretty sure that your reaction will depend, in part, on whether you’ve seen the play. It also didn’t help with me that I’ve seen about a half dozen non-musical versions of the story–including the excellent 1930s French picture.

Apart from it simply being better in person, this style musical (without traditional lyrics and choruses you will find yourself singing later), is a hard sell to the public in general. It just doesn’t work as well on film, as it loses the spectacle and emotional impact. So am I saying the film is bad? Nah. It just isn’t as good–despite some very good acting, decent singing (while some reported that Russell Crowe was weak, I thought his voice just fine), lovely sets and some eye-popping cinematography. It IS a good film. I particularly liked Sacha Baron Cohen’s song and dance number (get a load of the cat’s tail!) but everyone seemed to try quite hard to make this film well.

While I could say more, I noticed that there are almost 700 reviews for this film, so I’ll wrap it up and recommend the film mildly.

Simply splendid

Despite the somewhat mixed reviews, I really wanted to see Les Miserables. I love the musical, it is not the most accessible of musicals- it is lengthy and feels very like an opera(a genre that I adore but can see why others don’t)- but it never fails to give me goosebumps or move me and the music is just incredible. I wouldn’t go as far to say that this movie version is completely flawless, there are occasions where the camera angles are a little dizzying and Russell Crowe has an underpowered and nasal timbre that doesn’t really appeal to me(it also has a soft-grained rock-opera style that is at odds with the rest of the singing). But I found it a simply splendid film on its own merits as well as a solid adaptation of both the musical and the book.

Apart from some of the camera angles, I thought Les Miserables was stunning to look at. The costumes, locations and sets are both stunning(some of the best of the entire year for me) and evocative(complete with grubby faces and rotting teeth, Fantine’s plight is very seedy and nightmarish which makes you relate to her without being forced to). I personally liked the close-ups, whether there were too many is up for debate and I can definitely see why, but they did succeed in giving numbers like Empty Chairs and Empty Tables, On My Own, Stars(visually resplendent in its simplicity), Bring Him Home and especially I Dreamed a Dream a very personal touch.

I can definitely see why people won’t like the film. Like the musical and the book it is lengthy and the story is quite heavy-going and quite exhausting from an emotional standpoint. But even with the length- I am probably one of the few who didn’t think it was overlong- I was riveted throughout, not only was it so good musically as you’d expect but the storytelling felt coherent and easy to engage with. While there are some amusing moments with the Thenardiers and One Day More was very cleverly staged, there were many moments that really moved me. I Dreamed a Dream is by far the standout rendition of the film and along with On My Own, Eponine’s death and Empty Chairs and Empty Tables moved me to tears, but it was the ending that left me an emotional wreck. Valjean and Javert’s confrontation has been more convincing on stage, but there were definitely signs of intensity.

The music is incredible, one of those musicals where I don’t dislike a single song. The orchestration and how it’s played will stir many emotions, and the chorus, their best moment being Do You Hear the People Sing(closely followed by One Day More), also do powerful work. I thought the cast were great. Crowe is the weak link vocally, but I do think his acting is better than it is given credit for. The emotional detachment and grittiness did suit Javert’s character and there is signs of authority. Amanda Seyfried is lovely and innocent and her chemistry with Eddie Redmayne is great. And on the most part, apart from some shrillness and quivery vibrato in the upper register, her singing is sweet-toned and delicate. Redmayne is a dashing and very moving Marius, and his singing is full of emotion. You only had to see him in Empty Chairs and Empty Tables to see that he understood and felt every word.

Samantha Barks is perfectly cast also as the well-meaning and vulnerable Eponine, and her beautiful voice and how she presents herself has really come on since the Nancy-finding contest I’d Do Anything(where it was very good even then). Daniel Huttlestone’s scene-stealing Gavroche and Isabelle Allen’s adorably haunting Young Cosette also impress, and the Revolutionaries are a rousing and determined lot, particularly Enjolras. Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen- she with her facial expressions and he with how he calls Cosette the wrong names- are hilarious as the Thenardiers and don’t feel out of place at all.

Hugh Jackman is outstanding, capturing every side of Valjean’s tormented character, whether benevolent with young Cosette, all broken and close to death in the final convent scene, dignified as he saves people from harm(young Cosette especially) or intense in the confrontational parts between him and Javert. Apart from some high-note strain, his singing is fine and he sings every note and word with emotion. To me having a good voice is just one part of singing, you do need to know what you’re singing about, otherwise people won’t connect with you. And I have never seen Anne Hathaway as good as she is here, you can tell that she threw herself into the role of Fantine and it shows in a truly devastating and unforgettable portrayal. I Dreamed a Dream will not just move you to tears, it will render you speechless also, like Jackman and Redmayne it was clear how deeply felt her singing was.

All in all, a splendid film. It’s not for everybody but it’s undeniable that a lot of effort was put into this film and you can clearly see this in the acting, the period detail and the emotion behind the singing. 9/10 Bethany Cox