Les Misérables

[David]

We were lucky to get in at Covent Garden, must have taken the last couple seats.

Found it absolutely intolerable. HATED it https://moviefilmreviews.wordpress.com/ ... iserables/

[Betty Botter]

Saw this at the Printworks, we arrived at 6.05pm and the screen was half full already, we didn't get asked for the paper (but had it in my bag just in case). Staff were making sure people didn't leave any empty seats as they were expecting a full house - which it was.

Loved the film but was slightly distracted by Eddie Redmayne's hair. 9/10

[Rainey]

People phoning the cinema to check if the needed to bring the paper may have had something to do with the unusually high number of cinema's asking for the page??

[raj101]

Kingston didnt seem all that busy, just a queue that doubled back once on itself, I was expecting a few more kinks and bends in it than that. Two screens down the corridor from our screen there was a 2nd free screening tonight, of Identity Thief. In our screen there were empty seats in the front row - so I do hope everyone got in. I got in fine without a page, thuogh we had to wait till 6.20 to let the priveleged 'page bearers' in, those desperate or stupid enough to admit to b*ying (reading!) the Mail (though I understand its normal behaviour to read it in Surrey).

I was admittedly uncomfortable with the movie at first, it seemed to sell the soundtrack short a bit, courtesy of some bad cawing, er, singing from a certain Crow(e), plus some slightly dodgy opening special effects, but that soon wore off once better cast members entered the fray - in particular the musical really took off in the women's workhouse, where the female supporting cast raised the performance bar profoundly. They were easily some of the best actresses in the show, shame they wont get a look in when Oscars come round.

Though the extreme facial close-ups and toned down vocal talent took some getting used to, once you are past this then its a pretty good film with some awesome acting performances straddling a few average ones - in particular I was pleasantly suprised that a newt-eyed young Cosette's performance was one of the best of the show. The movie complements the stage musical well, in that it lends you a much better looking cast and scenes, of course at the cost of a reduction in singing ability, and the movie also distinguishes between the different locations and time periods which a stage play cant really do well. The shift from singing to spoken lines is a little disconcerting, almost comical at times, and the focus on faces will mean you are stuck with huge heads filling the screen when you go and see this in IMAX, which is occasionally exasperating given the effort put into the scenery, but again 'moonfaces' are something you wont see in the stage performance so its focus on facial emotion is a welcome addition most of the time....theres perhaps a bit too much of it at the beginning, thats all. It makes you worry that all you are going to see are huge heads for the rest of the movie.

One problem with the stage musical that the movie solves is that Javert never look like Javert, he invariably looks like a wellfed upper class public schooled chap on a comfortable salary who wouldnt give a roo's poo about being noble or dashing, whereas here faces are cast from a vast acting Hollywood pool so that a dishevelled Hugh looks like Javert and a shorn and skinny Anne is matched well for Fantine etcetera etcetera.

But the real stars of the show are the songs of course. They shine in all there blessed brightness here, despite some poor singing and occasoinal 'spoken' songlines....but in fact speaking and poor singing merely lend the movie a more realistic, earthy feel most of the time. Of course, the stage musicals hold their own advantages over this movie too, one being the variety of cast and variability of performances on the night, and allowing the viewer's eye to roam free over the prolific, perpetually moving entire cast rather than the one face that the movie often pins you down on.

Having commented on both stage and screen versions, I feel obliged to mention the other format, audio, is still by far the superior of the three, because it lets your imagination run wild and there are no bounds to it when the 'movie' is entirely in your head -a Les Miserables painted purely in the colours of the soundtrack alone is a far superior product to either stage or screen can muster.

So 9/10 with just some slight room for improvement..... but that dont mean I want a stupid sequel, please! just dont!

[dovetail]

One problem with the stage musical that the movie solves is that Javert never look like Javert, he invariably looks like a wellfed upper class public schooled chap on a comfortable salary who wouldnt give a roo's poo about being noble or dashing, whereas here faces are cast from a vast acting Hollywood pool so that a dishevelled Hugh looks like Javert and a shorn and skinny Anne is matched well for Fantine etcetera etcetera.

You mean Hugh Jackman looks like Valjean? Javert was played by Russell Crowe. I understand for the early scenes, both Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway lost 20 pounds. Jackman did not eat or drink for 36 hours to look gaunt. The scenes of deprivation and degradation were quite realistic and hard to watch at times without being moved to pity.

[ClareBarr]

Oh also, people were clapping in Wimb at the end of the film :) yeah asamaic I was wondering the same thing about Jean........ (won't say what as I don't know how to do a "spoiler" thingy on here?!)

(spoiler)Your spoiler goes here(/spoiler)

Except using square brackets [ ]

If you preview your message before you post it, you can check it's working!

Thanks :)

[McG]

At Braehead with Yinster + OH and teddybear1 + OH. I was the only one who had "THE PAGE" though I'd left it in the car and had to trail back to get it! I then provided the surly cashier with not just the page but the whole paper!
Lots of problems re seating as some folk (8) had allocated seating and the other 4 of us didn't. Now I know that looks as though there were only 12 of us but at the start there were only 12 of us with the ticket and the newspaper! Manager couldn't explain what was happening but would not cancel "allocated" seating as more people had it than not! I was first in queue and first in cinema but was confronted by 2 women saying I was sitting in their seats! So much for 1st come, 1st served!

I love the stage show of Les Mis and have seen it many times (probably about 12 times) and was soooo excited to see the film. I loved the different perspective of the film and the aerial views of Paris. I was prepared for the film to be "Actors singing" rather than "Singers singing" and did find Russell Crowe's singing to be the weakest, I did think that Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway did a reasonably good performance. I did feel at times that I would like to "turn the volume up" a little as I did feel the sound lacked something .I am delighted that I got to see it in preview but will probably go and see it again even if I've to p*y!

Marks 9.5/10

[canadian_turtle]

Oh this was on in Greenwich too, oops And here I was wondering why I didn't see any familiar faces in the audience today

If I'd known I would have presented myself! I was in the middle section front row.
The three people next to me had come through "10 ways to make money as a student" page on facebook.

Oh we were in the second row of the middle section so probably right behind you! (my friend was sitting next to a coupld who were apparantly talking throughout the whole film - I didn't notice....)

[Sheila]

Really enjoyed this film- have never seen the show so now understand why my colleagues are so excited to see it on the Big screen.
Nice idea for staff in screen at Bradford to be selling ice creams, did they know how hot is was going to get in there?

[funthing29]

We were lucky to get in at Covent Garden, must have taken the last couple seats.

Found it absolutely intolerable. HATED it https://moviefilmreviews.wordpress.com/ ... iserables/

Bumping this review in case it got missed amongst all the enthusiastic praise.

"We’re at the end and the woman next to me cries. Before the film started she told her friend that she was worried this moment would come but she didn’t have any tissues. She must be crying into her sleeve, poor thing. I don’t have any tissues. Head pounding, two and a half hours later, horrified at the cinematic disaster produced by such an admired director, I start crying into my sleeve. We share a moment."