'Les Miserables'
A movie review by Walter Frith
Member of the 'Internet Movie Critics Association' http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/5713/index.html
>From the first film version of Victor Hugo's classic novel 'Les Miserables' in 1935 with Fredric March and Charles Laughton, to the latest (not counting this one) in 1995 with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Boujenah, there have been four other notable versions sandwiched in between. Two in 1952, one in 1957 and a television version in 1978. Hugo's fascinating novel of forgiveness and redemption is a timeless and literary classic message to be passed down for all generations to come. I've read the book twice but the last time was some 15 years ago or so and I must confess that I've never seen any of the staged versions but so what? Motion pictures capture the true essence of eternal human expression better than any other medium. Just my opinion, of course, but seeing visuals spring from the pages of artful writing is truly one of life's greatest pleasures. The latest version is a pleasing, but is at times a muted adaptation that might disappoint the hard core fans of the story but will satisfy most others. I'm somewhere in between and I recommend the picture either way.
Set in early 19th century France, Liam Neeson is Jean Valjean, a man convicted of stealing bread from a merchant's window display and is forced to spend 19 years in prison, suffering the harsh labour of a punishment that doesn't fit the crime. The hypocrisy of 19th justice comes to complete fruition as people are judged in the workplace on their morals, but a completely immoral punishment such as this comes to pass. Upon his release on parole, he examines his future through the kind actions of a monsignor who spares him from a return to prison and Valjean rises above the social cellar to become a man of political influence and considerable wealth. Neeson is towering in the role of Valjean, uncompromising in his righteous path of redemption while retaining the strength of character he learned the hard way in prison.
Geoffrey Rush ('Shine') is Javert, a man who served as an official who supervised, abused and humiliated Valjean in prison and now recognizes Valjean twenty years later, determined to see Valjean arrested for circumstances that he considers to be a violation of Valjean's parole. His intention is to expose Valjean for who he once was. In this time and place, you don't have the chance to reform as society always judges you by what you've done in your past life. Javert is a man so rigid in his moral high ground, that he fails to see the errors of his way. Rush is completely different from the role he played in 'Shine'. He proves he can make a villain just as memorable as a hero and he is truly a gifted performer.
Valjean now owns a factory and is the local mayor and takes pity upon a former worker, Fantine (Uma Thurman) who was dismissed for having a child out of wedlock and is now forced to work as a prostitute to support her daughter that she sent away to live with others. As he is forced to leave his business behind because of the relentless pursuit by Javert, Valjean adopts Fantine's daughter Cosette (Mimi Newman as a little girl and and later Claire Danes as a young woman) after Fantine's death and as the years pass, they try an make a life for themselves around the time of an uprising against the French monarchy. Cosette's semi-romantic involvement with a young revolutionary (Hans Matheson) is the film's weak spot, an underwritten sub plot that detracts for the overall impact of the film's climax.
As a richly textured and deeply felt part of literary history, Les Miserables transforms well into a motion picture but it is impossible to portray all of the book's elements in a 2 hour and 13 minute film but director Bille August and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias have fashioned a version of the story that moves well, is easy to understand, and despite the lack of French accents among the cast, it's a story of redemption on many levels, most notably that of souls tormented by their past.
OUT OF 5> * * * 1/2
Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith http://home.netinc.ca/~wfrith/movies.htm
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews