I finally got around to watching this film and while Russel Crowe’s singing voice was quite jarring and quite unexpected, I really enjoyed it.

Les Mis started out as a book that turned into a musical that turned into a film about the French Revolution, seeing it from the side of the poor but mainly through the eyes of Jean Valjean, a man who was convicted for stealing bread for his sister’s child and served 20 years before getting out and restarting his life as the Mayor.

There’s a lot of characters that you get to know in this film and they all have interesting parts to play, as well as some downfalls. I feel putting such big names in this film that might not have the best singing abilities wasn’t the best just because they have such a big presence. As I’ve already said Russel Crowe was quite distracting any time that he started singing, Hugh Jackman was good but again it was quite hard not to giggle at some of the moments with him, I feel the only characters that really shined in this film were Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Barks.

I’m glad I watched this movie as I feel it’s one of these films that you have to see before you die, but it was quite long. The continuous singing was quite jarring and while it is a fantastic film and I see why Anne Hathaway won her Oscar, there were moments that I didn’t really care for.

Javert constantly popping up was quite frustrating, especially when you are on Jean Valjean’s side so much and want him to do well and get out of this horrific cycle, so to see him constantly be there was annoying. I didn’t really get why he had to kill him self at the end, that was almost comical to me, and to be honest Cosette and Marius’ relationship was a bit weird – it just happened too quick and felt very Disney.

Would I watch this movie again? Probably not, but I feel I would go see the stage musical if I were so inclined. I feel on stage with actors who actually are Broadway stars that can really belt out the songs would be really impactful, and I do feel that’s just the way this film fell short for me was the actor choices. While a lot of them were very good at what they did, some just fell short, and yes I am talking about Russel Crowe again.

What do you think of Les Misérables?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding