Les Miz, watching it on Broadway and on film

Melodramatic. Superfluous. Over the top. Sentimental. These are some of the words thrown by acerbic film critics on the film.  I don’t blame them. It is and I love it.

While the norm for films nowadays seem to be on the subdued, the minimalist plot centering on the angsty hero, anti-hero, this film flings all that like someone barging through the doors with his ridiculously colored costume and singing at the top of his lungs unabashedly crying, rejoicing and screaming with all his might while the repressed, constipated spectators/critics watch in horror, beating their breast and clutching on their “modern” preconceived notion of what a film should be in the 21^st century. 

(movie stills from cinemablend.com)

I can't understand the pillage of words spewed by these pseudo-intellectual busybodies. Just because a film is heartfelt doesn't mean it's cliché, uninventive. People love it, they are moved by it. They are affected by it, isn't that a film is supposed to do, make you feel, make you think or even make you cry? Or are we at an age where eye-popping CGI or special effects with a thin plot supposed to be the better film? Maybe I’m just an old-fashioned prick but I like a film that still deals with human emotions, human realities even without CGI. And to the critics, those sitting on their high horses ruining the moment for some of us before we can judge the film for ourselves, maybe they should feel their pulse once in a while to check if their heart is still beating. Harsh, I know. But if you could have read what a critic in New Yorker said (especially the one of a Mr. Denby) these lines are way kinder.

Speaking of New York, I have watched Les Miserables on Broadway.  It was the first and only Broadway show I watched in the Big Apple. So yes, I will defend it rather vigorously. New York and Les Miz are intertwined in my memory. I only spent days in that city but it was a heady experience, what with my first subway ride and my first time in the lively Times Square. And also my first time to have the sun shine so merrily in the sky and leave my ears almost frozen like an ice cube. Coming from a tropical country, that was a dumbfounding experience. I always thought that if the sun was up, it was supposed to make the day, well,  warm and sunny but apparently, not always. I thought winter was supposed to be colder or is February still winter? Because I've seen winter, trudged in snow in Vancouver and watched snowflakes form on my hand and it was bearable so the whipping cold in Manhattan was quite a surprise to me.

Going back, I watched Les Miz very high up on a theater one cold February evening in 2002. And the only thing lacking then were binoculars. My cousin purchased tickets on sale so I can't really be choosy, can I? Only grateful. That time I think it was $25. Thank God, the actors had superb singing voices because they still resonated clear to me even if I felt I was stories high.

Honestly, I didn't have any idea what I was watching then. It was a musical and that's that. I was in the "I'm in New York so I should watch a musical "mindset. And along the course of the musical, I became enthralled by the story of Jean Valjean. When the priest gave him his second chance and made a better life for him and others, that part endeared me to this musical. I don’t remember much of the other characters after that, didn't even read Victor Hugo’s novel (yes, until now). It was just Jean Valjean and yes, I also remember him carrying this boy that his daughter was in love with, other than that I can’t recall much.

So when I heard Les Miz the movie was being filmed, I was happy. Who would play, Jean Valjean? I thought. And it was High Jackman. Wolverine. Wow. I like him, he does exude a good moral center and had some experience in musicals so I think he will nail it.

I wasn't disappointed. He delivered well. It’s just a little weird watching him in an almost falsetto-like voice in the beginning but he’s more of an actor than a singer so that’s fine besides the emotions he conveyed on screen was spot on. The first scenes of him pulling on a rope on a chilly morning with other prisoners, gaunt with bloodshot eyes were raw and gritty. He really does have a wide acting range, Jean Valjean was quite different from his tough, sarcastic X-men character. And embarrassing as it may to write this, his portrayal triggered the waterworks in me, I was dabbing my eyes many times. He was that good.

Morever, when he sang, Who am I? Rationalizing his unwillingness to expose himself as the wanted prisoner because other people depend on him, that was one of his touching scenes with my own clichéd tears rolling down my cheeks again and finally his dying scene, that was the clincher. That scene, I feared I would sob out loud but thankfully did not. Just red-eyed after, letting the others go out first then hurriedly sneaked out after.

Anne Hathaway was good too. I love her I Dreamed a Dream scene. It was wrenching. I also love Eponine’s On My Own played by Samantha Banks. She sang the emotion of someone suffering from unrequited love quite well. Then there was Eddie Redmayne who played Marius. That longing look for Cosette made a lot of women swoon including me. 

Then there’s Amanda Seyfried who played Cosette, beguiling with her large, doe-eyes. She didn’t have a lot of scenes but she was believable as the loving daughter of Jean Valjean and the forlorn young lady in love with Marius. The younger Cosette was also good, with her sweet voice and innocent looks, it’s to see easy why Jean Valjean was protective of her. Their scene in the carriage with was quite touching.

On the other hand, Russel Crowe seems to be the odd man here. He looked uncomfortable with the singing that his acting didn't register much on screen. But still, it was a valiant effort, to try some things outside one’s acting comfort zone. That in itself is commendable.

There were criticisms however, why there were a lot of close-ups. My guess is, the director, Tom Hooper wanted to focus on the emotions not the singing. On musicals, where the audience is far away, singing is the focus, they have to exaggerate their singing, their movements because it has to be heard and felt by the person in the last row. But in a movie, it is about seeing these emotions up close, something you don’t always experience in a true musical. It’s a different experience all together and gives the audience to a closer look at the characters and empathize with them.

Overall, the experience of Les Miserables on Broadway and on film were both uniquely satisfying because at its center is Victor Hugo’s story that is not only complex but enduring. It had a lot of sub-plots that were equally engaging.

For me, the transformation of Jean Valjean was the key that unlocked the stories of the other characters. It was his generosity that changed the life of others. He accepted the gift of a second chance graciously and made good with it while others who cannot fathom such blessing like Javert, rigid with his self-imposed ideals imploded. Cleverly interwoven too, in Jean Valjean’s story was the love and sacrifices that people can make for one’s child like Fantine and one's cause as shown by the young revolutionaries’ zeal against the bigger French army. And at the same time, he also showed that amid all the chaos the blush of first love like Marius and Cosette’s can still blossom even at the heartbreaking mist of Eponine’s unreturned affection.

I can’t imagine how hard Victor Hugo worked to weave these stories together. Just telling one story is hard enough so to have complex characters with their own backstory was inspiring. Moreover, re-telling this complex story again through the songs composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil was also  fascinating.It heightened its sense of poignancy, magnifying the highs of love and the despair of loss. Les Miz may be a story written a century ago but it's something we can still relate to today, its story is enduring and will always be fondly remembered by many. I'm glad I watched it.