Les Mis: What is it with pixie cuts and great acting?

As Christmas Day rolled to a close, my Facebook feed became abnormally busy. Everyone I knew had seen Les Miserables , and so I scrolled through the statuses hearing accolade upon accolade heaped upon a film that my bevy of friends had instantly approved. Damn. Even as I went into the cinema on boxing day morning, I was intensely annoyed- how to write a review on a movie that most people already think is good ? The anticipation for Les Mis was so high amongst everyone I knew , that I had arranged to see it twice in one day, once with the family and again with my friends. Although a blizzard has not permitted my second viewing as of yet, I definitely came out of the cinema knowing that I could not sit this one out.

Let me start by reaffirming what most of you already know: Les Mis is good. But most of us who have seen it didn't go to see if it would be good , as the accolades have been swirling for weeks. I went to see Les Mis in order to know why it was good, to be impressed, and to be moved.  Musicals turned into movies can be difficult for me to connect to in that last regard - a strange tension always existing between the actors the directors cast and those who can actually sing/act. I'll never forget the day I told my mum that all of the leads in 1961's West Side Story were dubbed with other people's voices. Natalie Wood (who played Maria) could not sing well to save her life, and when one watches the live recordings of the cast singing, it is easy to understand why such a choice was made. Because of that, there is a subtle disconnect between the actor and lyrics that already seem  cheesy for a movie screen. It really is no small wonder that a lot of movie enthusiasts can't stand musicals.  Forty years later, the musical about Jean Valjean, a  parole-violating former french convict searching for redemption by raising the little girl of a single mother down on her luck(understatement of the year), has been filmed with one goal in mind: to do justice to a piece that when placed in good hands, allows actors to do incredible things.

In order to achieve this, director Tom Hooper asked all singing by leads to be done live, each one having an ear piece through which they could hear accompanying music being played by an on-set pianist, who would retard or proceed as the actor so wished. The theory of course being that live singing enables the actor to play around with what he or she could do with every possible line of a song, allowing musical actors to...act.

As I watched the film, it became apparent that Hooper had staked almost everything on this technique, with nearly every major soliloquy  shot up close and personal , with stars sometimes looking not necessarily at you, but through you. In taking such a gamble, Hooper tees up many of his stars for home runs- notably a superb Anne Hathaway, whose performance as the desperate , struggling Fantine can only be described as her most effective performance to date. In fact, I found myself wishing that her character's place in the plot allowed her to be in more of the film, as I felt that she delivered an emotional  range both in acting and singing that the audience wasn't really ready to appreciate right out of the gate. One person that no doubt will have enjoyed Hathaway's performance is the actress' own mother, who herself starred once starred in the same role on Broadway. Hugh Jackman puts in another fantastic performance as Jean Valjean, and in those rare moments where the film seems to lose some sense of direction, he pulls you ever so roughly back into the story and the eternal struggle between a man and his God.

Sadly, every time I got ready to celebrate a home-run, there were those that simply missed the ball completely. Russell Crowe, one of my favourite actors, seemed to be out of place as Inspector Javert, who hunts Valjean throughout the story. I was thoroughly not entertained each time the Gladiator actor came on screen, singing  in a way that unfortunately wasn't nearly as bad as his acting or lack thereof. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter made a nice enough comedic pairing as thieving dishonest innkeepers, but I think it would have been even funnier had Cohen channeled more of his inner-Frenchman from Talladega Nights (average movie I know, but the man was funny). Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried 's turn as the lovers Maurius and Cosette (the girl Valjean raises), was also well done, with Redmayne living up to an already sparkling West End stage reputation and often outshining Seyfried, whose Cosette never truly seems to justify such great struggle and sacrifice by everyone around her.

And yet, such blots as Crowe's performance did not by any means ruin my enjoyment of this film. As a kid who never did a musical in high school until his senior year, I often went to see otherwise good performances where some elements definitely left more to be desired. In much the same way, such is the power and strength of those that buy into Hooper's goals that the film works, and after almost three hours of  romance, despair and tantalizing hope , there was not a dry eye to be had in the theatre. This is not a perfect film by any means, and yet its imperfections are an afterthought  to it's achievements  as Hooper somehow balances a world filled with green-screens with footage of real palaces and grime-filled sets. It is in its legitimacy and bravery that the film connects to its viewers, leaving me with an experience that I will always remember, long after the music has stopped.