The trailer for Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical was released this week, and a couple of people have asked for an opinion. I have strong feelings about this one already, though all I have to go on is the casting, some pictures, and now, the trailer. I hold Les Miserables very close to my heart, largely because of my own experience as assistant director for a production in California.
I have a tendency to talk about my career in theatre like an old drug habit - good times were had, crazy times, I had a certain group of friends, and now I’ve moved on to a grown-up job in the suburbs, with no intent to return to my old ways. I don’t like going to theatre, I don’t miss it, but there are some experiences that have forever changed me. One of those experiences was Les Miserables at PCPA Theatrefest. PCPA was the first company to acquire the rights to the show after the Broadway production closed, and one of the stipulations of the contract was that the designers were prevented from recreating the original, iconic sets and costumes. This forced us to rethink the show, go at it from the source material, to seek inspiration from the show’s concept album and the epic (in the truest meaning of the word) novel by Victor Hugo. No film will ever truly capture the scope of Hugo’s mammoth text, which was written over the course of seventeen years, but I do believe that it’s possible for the truth of the story to get through - if the characters are true to the author’s intent, and the plot isn’t mangled too badly.
Based on the early images and choices from the filmmakers, I definitely question some of the decisions. Call me crazy, but I would rather see the characters portrayed accurately than see another production of the musical version of Les Mis. What I respect about the musical is that it leaves room for detail. An actor who has done his or her research and allows it to inform the performance will offer an intricate and dramatic performance based on much stronger motives. In the movie industry, good casting is too often sacrificed for names and PR. Bad enough that self-involved teenagers swooning with unrequited love lament “On My Own” in theatres all over the world, but “I Dreamed a Dream,” too, has been reclaimed and abused by Susan Boyle fans. These are small moments in a vast story whose much bigger theme is redemption - the cost of which most of us could not begin imagine.
When I first met Les Mis in the seventh grade, I could not possibly relate to the middle-aged prisoner Jean Valjean. Knowing the story as I do now, it’s clear that Les Miserables is his story. Valjean is the central figure; the saga begins and ends with him. Yet, strangely, the trailer focuses on Ann Hathaway as Fantine. I know Fantine has fallen on hard times - but insofar as the trailer is concerned, I don’t think she’s fallen far enough. Ann Hathaway looks perfectly healthy, sporting her short ’do, and not at all the desperate woman and mother Fantine is. Fantine is not simply a woman who was seduced by a gentleman and became pregnant. We know from the song that she believed she would be with the child’s father - what we don’t learn is the only reason she is alone: the gentleman and his friends thought it would be funny to dally with these girls and then drop them, without any explanation. It’s positively Neil LaBute. When Fantine gives birth to her child, she has no intention of giving her up, and her efforts to earn enough for the both of them drive her to hock her only possessions (including her hair), prostitute herself to disgusting businessmen and foul sailors, and to sell her teeth. Her daughter, she has been told, is sick and will surely die without money for the doctor. No, Hathaway looks quite well, and quite unlike a mourning mother.
And that’s just Fantine. Those familiar with the story may recall that Fantine all but disappears from the story fairly early. What becomes of Valjean? And from whom is he hiding? The first actor attached to the production was Hugh Jackman - an excellent choice for Javert. That is not, however, who Jackman is playing. Granted, Jackman has the far superior voice - but Russell Crowe would undeniably be a more imposing figure. Far more believable as the strongest man to have passed through French prisons - and escape. It’s hard to imagine Crowe as The Law, or Javert. Born in a jail and determined to bring all wrongdoers to justice, Javert pursues Valjean even as the escaped convict spends his life protecting Fantine’s daughter. The animal imagery and strength attributed to Valjean seems much more appropriately attributed to Crowe than Jackman. Who is more likely to lift a heavily laden merchant cart off of an old man? It’s difficult to imagine Jackman doing so, but former Gladiator Crowe makes sense. It would seem that vital characteristics have been overlooked by the filmmakers. Don’t even get me started on Eponine (she’s supposed to be ugly!). The aptly cast roles of the Thenardiers do not appear in the trailer, and I anticipate excellent, spot-on performances from both Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.
I’m an optimist at heart, and I hope that each incarnation is better - truer - than the last. I’ll still be among the first in line to see the film, but I would not be surprised to see the people (students, revolutionaries) take over the film and overshadow the main message. We shall see; time will tell.
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