When I think of musical I think of a movie where, every now and then, they start singing a song. This movie is one long song, there are only seldom parts of dialogue that aren't sung.
We follow Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) through his life, as a convicted slave he flees from the man of the law, Javert (Russel Crowe) and we follow him throughout the decades, always fleeing from Russel Crowe while also raising Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of Fantine (Anne Hathaway), who was abused and died in the first part of the movie.
The story is parted in three stages. First we have Jean Valjean as a free slave, the second part is about him as a mayor and in the third part we follow him as a father, while there is also the French Rebellion.
The cast is great: Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sascha Baron Cohen all do a fantastic job. Not only is their acting great, they are also all great singers. I knew Hugh Jackman could sing, I knew Anne Hathaway could sing and since I've seen Sweeney Todd I know Helena Bonham-Carter can sing too. I didn't expect Russel Crowe to be such a good singer and I was blown away by the singing of Eddie Redmayne. To be honest I only knew him from the Theory of Everything, but he has one of the best voices in this movie.
The story is great and packing, I was really moved by what happened.
Not only were the actors awesome, but the acting was very good. I guess it's very hard to sing like that and still act that great. You really feel for and with the characters. Also all the singing was done live in front of the camera instead of prerecorded and I guess that helps the acting feeling more real.
I had goosebumps at certain parts of the movie because the great singing was mixed with the awesome story. But there weren't only heavy parts, the innkeepers scene for example is very funny while still being a good song.
Not all the songs were catchy and awesome but I guess that is like in the opera, some songs are there to show the feelings, those are long and awesome, but then there are also songs to just move the story forward, they go fast and are almost like talking.
My only real problem was that it was very long, this movie takes two and a half hours but that's because of the story, there is maybe one little sidestory they could have cut out but I think even that small subplot makes the story go on and helps it.
So all in all almost nothing bad to say about this movie. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, if you like musicals or opera, you really should watch this. For people who don't like musicals all that much this movie could be a pain in the ass to sit through though.
No comments:
Post a Comment