LES MISERABLES A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Victor Hugo's famous novel, "Les Miserables," has now been made into - count 'em - 16 different movies, and that doesn't include the filmed version of the musical from a few years back. What THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS director Bille August is trying to say with his version of the movie that has not been said so many times before remains unclear. Although he assembles a strong cast to tell a powerful story, he has trouble breathing much life into it. Most scenes are staged strictly by the book with only the brilliance of the source material and the extremely handsome production raising the picture above the ordinary.
Anna Asp's sets are picture postcard perfect, especially the snow encrusted village. Jorgen Persson's cinematography dazzles the eyes with its lush colors. And the romantic music by Basil Poledouris has best seller written all over it.
As the story opens, Jean Valjean (Liam Neeson) has been released after 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. After being befriended by a kindly bishop, Jean goes on to make his fortune as a factory owner and to become the mayor of a small town.
One day Inspector Javert is sent from Paris to Jean's town to be the new prefect of police. Javert recognizes Jean as an ex-prisoner, and he abides no belief in criminal rehabilitation. ("Reform is a discarded fantasy.") The rest of the story becomes a long cat-and-mouse game with Javert trying to capture and reincarcerate Jean.
SHINE's Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush, as Inspector Javert, proves to be the film's most troubling choice. Unlike the highly emotive and agitated character in SHINE, Rush makes the key role of the story's villain into a lifeless enigma with a single facial expression that looks like a head from Mount Rushmore. One wonders why the director didn't snap his fingers and ask Rush to get with the program.
Almost as unsatisfying is Uma Thuman as Fantine, the dying factory woman with an out-of-wedlock child. Thurman turns the character into a mawkish cliche.
Although Neeson does a good job, the only outstanding performance comes from Claire Danes in her fairly small part as Fantine's daughter, Cosette. (The movie takes several large leaps in time.) She is the only one to demonstrate strong emotions, both tragic and romantic. When she sticks her hand through the hole in the family's door to brush fingertips with her lover, a revolutionary played by Hans Matheson, the air becomes electric with her passion, proving again that filmdom's most erotic moments can occur fully dressed.
In the film's final battle sequence, complete with the killing of small children I should warn you, the movie gets the energy so absent from the body of the picture. A disappointing film that can be strangely cold and antiseptic, its wonderful story and its production save the day in the end. But if you don't want to see this version, you can rent one of the others or wait a few years for the next one.
LES MISERABLES runs a bit long at 2:09. It is rated PG-13 for violence and for some sexual content and would be fine for kids around twelve and up.
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