I have some advice for people who may have recently viewed Les
Miserables at the movie theater: open your internet browser of choice, point
the browser to youtube.com, in the search field enter “Javert’s Suicide,”
click on the first result it returns. The man you see on the screen is Philip
Quast, an Australian actor and theater teacher. If you view all five minutes
and twenty-four seconds of the video, you will now have experienced a small
sample of the real, genuine musical.
The difference between Quast’s performance and Russell Crowe’s
in the recent made-for-film musical may not seem that drastic, but Les Mis lovers
will find something wanting in the film.
Before I review the actors and the songs, I think it is worth
adding this caveat, the film’s worst problems are not the added or omitted
lines (though there are some problems there) or the action scenes used to make
it more suitable for that medium. The problems arise out of the singing and the
acting, not the necessary adaptations made for the screen.
First, while I generally consider Hugh Jackman and Russell
Crowe to be impostors on the musical scene, it cannot be denied that the film
has some hidden gems of talent. A good guide for the talent in this film is:
the bigger the name, the smaller the talent. The following well-known actors
absolutely botched their characters in the film: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe,
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. The only exception to this
rule is Anne Hathaway’s performance.
While I’m not prepared to say that her version of “I Dreamed
a Dream” is equal to that of Ruthie Henshall or even Susan Boyle, it is not as
far from the mark as are so many of the other performances in the film.
Moreover, she redeems herself in many of her other performances throughout the film,
though she still does not measure up.
As for Jackman and Crowe, they both lack the same thing, the
ability to hit the high and low notes respectively. Perhaps this was an
intentional element of the performance, but I found that neither of them seemed
to give the same kind of range to their voice that other performers in the same
roles have. Compared to one another, Crowe makes Jackman sound like a regular
Orpheus, staged, as Jackman is, beside such an impoverished voice.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter ruin the roles
of Thenardier and his wife, though Bonham Carter very much looks the part. In
both of their cases, their characters sang less sharply, less subtly and were
much more comical when compared to, for instance, the tenth anniversary performance
of the musical where their characters are portrayed as much more comic,
bumbling and witty. It’s nevertheless true that they were not given as much
stage time as in the musical, the film omits Thenardier’s solo “Dog Eats Dog” and
shortens “Beggars at the Feast” to omit the less politically correct lyrics
which betray their characters’ racism and homophobia. Perhaps, they are simply
forced into this role but they seem very cartoonish on the big screen.
The real gems of the film are: Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron
Tveit, Samantha Barks and Daniel Huttlestone. Among these, I would rate
Samantha Barks’ (Eponine) performance the highest with Eddie Redmayne (Marius)
coming in a close second.
It is not because they are true to the ‘original’
performance that I rate these actors higher. In fact, they make substantial changes
to the way the musical has been performed in previous years, but these changes
are not deleterious. For instance, Eponine’s “A Little Fall of Rain” as
performed by Barks outright trounces Jackman’s performance of “Bring Him Home”
which does not adequately express the desperation of Valjean and is at times
flat, nasal and whiny. Similarly, Redmayne’s performance is much more alive
than and represents an improvement on the singer who was cast as Marius in the
25th anniversary performance.
It is also worth mentioning the child actor Huttlestone’s
performance as Gavroche which is quite effective and an improvement I think on
the musical.
I did not know that Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe could
sing before viewing this movie but the truth is I’m still not sure either of
them can.
On the whole, the best thing about the film was the
orchestra’s performance. I strongly recommend finding a copy of the orchestral
music from the film, it was enough to make me reluctant to turn on the radio as
I left the theater.
It is possible that the film’s many shortcomings are due to
the fact that it has descended into the pop culture realm of film from the high
art world of musical theater.
The screen does not capture large, dramatic performances
well, stage acting is usually much bigger and more vocal, whereas acting and
speaking for the camera is subtle and more nuanced. Thus, perhaps it is
possible that Crowe’s Javert is less dark and dramatic; Jackman’s Valjean is less
passionate and panicked because of the constraints imposed by the medium, not because
of the failings of the actors. This problem might also explain the problem of
portraying the Thenardiers, who are essentially caricatures in the musical and
don’t translate well onto the screen.
In any case, for a musical that is so brilliant and which
conveys such powerful feeling, I think a connoisseur should try to see it in person;
it’s much more striking that way.
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