Fellman's Movie Reviews

I watched Les Miserables today. It’s the third time I’ve seen it, but the first since I’ve started doing this whole movie review blog, so I thought this would be a great movie to try out my new review format. Now, I’m not a big fan of musicals, but this is a really great film, whether you’re into them or not. It’s no wonder this movie won so many awards. All of the actors are giving 100% in this film, and they all have amazing voices. The scenes are so emotional and heartfelt, it adds a whole other level to the story. The story, by the way, is excellent as well. By itself, the plot would make a great story, even if it wasn’t a musical.  

The film stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, and Amanda Seyfried with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen. Anne Hathaway gets one of the top billings, even though she’s only in about 30 minutes of the movie. But she’s one of the most famous people in the film, and that’s how Hollywood works. Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are really the stars of the film, with the story essentially revolving around them. 

The songs aren’t even the best part of the movie, even though it’s a musical. It’s the performances by the actors of the songs. The looks in their eyes and the sounds of their voices while doing these scenes in one take with no cutaways, it really is remarkable when you think about it. You think about how they do these long songs with no breaks or somebody coming in to add tears to their eyes or anything. It makes the scenes even more impressive.  

It’s a long movie, though. It’s two hours and 37 minutes long. But you get caught up in it, so you don’t really notice it until the end, and you realize that almost three hours have gone by, and you’re like “wow! That was a long movie!” Which is a good thing. Because time flies when you’re having fun. If a movie were to drag on, and you were watching the clock, waiting for it to be over, it probably isn’t a very good movie. 

The film won 53 different awards after it came out. That’s a ridiculous amount of awards. It was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 3 of them. The rest were all lesser-known awards, but awards nonetheless. Some awards are just worth more than others. A Golden Globe will get you a little more prestige than an MTV Movie Award when you put it on your acting resume.  

And after seeing how epic the scenes were in this film, and how large some of the stages would have to be to be an actual play, it really makes me want to see it performed live. Because this is such a good movie, and the songs are so well written, I think that whoever would put together a Broadway play would cast some excellent performers to do the parts and it would just make an excellent show.  

So yeah, go and see Les Miserables. It’s a fantastic piece of art that will really make you appreciate musicals a lot more than you probably do now. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…