LES MIS&Eacute;RABLES&nbsp;(2012)
It would be an understatement to say that attempting to adapt one of the most popular and longest running musicals of all time for the big screen is an incredibly daunting task, but Tom Hooper sure is the man for the job.&nbsp;The King&amp;#8217;s Speech&nbsp;director approached the film adaptation of the much-loved musical in a way that married the best of what broadway has to offer with the magic and grandiosity of film. The power of theater is in its authenticity; with actors conveying emotions directly to an audience without the filters of editing and special effects that can sometimes distract from the genuineness of the material. The magic of cinema, on the other hand, is in its capacity to take something to an entirely new level in scale. Everything is bigger, bolder, and brighter, yet without entirely sacrificing the intimacy offered by broadway. With Les Mis, Hooper was able to offer audiences the best of both worlds, and he was extremely fortunate to be blessed with a marvelous and multitalented cast consisting of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter, to name a few. Not only were these actors gifted with amazing voices, but their performances perfectly matched the evocative music and story.&nbsp;
[[MORE]]
It can be said that&nbsp;Les Mis&eacute;rables&nbsp;is the feelgood movie of the year, because the characters in the film experience such misery that the audience ends up feeling good about themselves. The story, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, revolves around Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), who has just been released from prison after stealing a loaf of bread. Rejoining society isn&amp;#8217;t very easy; the social stigma of being a convict becomes too much of a burden to many, including Valjean, who has a difficult time finding honest work and shelter because of his criminal record. Add to that the fact that he has captured the dogged interest of police chief Javert (Russell Crowe), who has made it his life&amp;#8217;s mission to make sure Valjean never forgets that he is a criminal. Valjean almost gets sent back to prison after he steals from a church, but the priest who took him in decides not to press charges against him, in effect giving Valjean another chance at life. This act of kindness brings an epiphany to Valjean, and he realizes that he needs to make a real effort to change his life, else he will never get out of the hole he dug himself into. Years pass and Valjean is now a successful businessman, owning a textile factory and even going on to become mayor of a small town. One of his factory workers is a woman named Fantine (Anne Hathaway), who struggles with odd jobs to make ends meet for her young daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen). Fantine&amp;#8217;s good looks earn the envy of her coworkers, who turn against her and accuse her of being a troublemaker, leading her to be thrown out and left in the streets. Desperate, Fantine turns to a brothel, where she sells her hair and teeth for money to send to the Th&eacute;nardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter), husband and wife innkeepers who are looking after Cosette in Fantine&amp;#8217;s absence. In Fantine&amp;#8217;s line of work as a prostitute, she becomes extremely sick and one night, Valjean happens upon her on the street and takes her in. Fantine&amp;#8217;s sickness overwhelms her and she dies, but not before Valjean promises that he will take care of her daughter Cosette. Javert discovers that Valjean has been living under an alias and confronts him at the hospital. Valjean pleads for Javert to give him a few days so that he can fulfill his promise to Fantine and make sure Cosette is looked after. Javert refuses, so Valjean flees and goes to the Th&eacute;nardiers, where he&nbsp;pays them a hefty sum of money to release Cosette.&nbsp;

Fast forward a few years and Cosette is all grown up (played by Amanda Seyfried). She and Valjean have managed to live a quiet life together, but one day Valjean runs into the Th&eacute;nardiers, who now scam people for money and realize that they could have asked Valjean for more in exchange for Cosette. A ruckus erupts and Javert rides in and discovers Valjean and Cosette, but before he has a chance to capture Valjean, they escape. Marius (Eddie Redmayne), a young revolutionary, sees Cosette during this rumble with the Th&eacute;nardiers. He is instantly smitten and convinces his friend, &Eacute;ponine (Samantha Barks), to help find her. &Eacute;ponine is in love with Marius, but as his friend she helps him find Cosette. Unfortunately Cosette and Marius&amp;#8217; reunion is short-lived, as Valjean is too unsettled by his run-in with Javert to stay at the same location. He and Cosette flee and Marius goes off to join the revolutionaries. I&amp;#8217;ll end the synopsis here, but the rest of the film culminates in a battle between the revolutionaries and French army.
The story has multiple themes, from salvation and second chances to paying it forward, idealism and the harshness of the world we live in. Being kind to another human being is seeing God&amp;#8217;s face in theirs, as the song goes. The story is called&nbsp;Les Mis&eacute;rables&nbsp;(French for &amp;#8220;the miserable ones&amp;#8221; or &amp;#8220;the wretched/unfortunate/poor ones&amp;#8221;) for a reason, and it&amp;#8217;s because it&amp;#8217;s one filled with strife, struggle and survival, all in different stages of people&amp;#8217;s lives. Valjean&amp;#8217;s struggles are one of redemption - one mistake turned his life upside down and his whole life has since been dedicated to righting this wrong. Fantine&amp;#8217;s struggle is one of sheer misfortune; a single mother with no one to care for her and her child, she had to make sacrifices to ensure that her daughter wouldn&amp;#8217;t end up like her. In the later half of the story, these individual struggles combine to form the story of the many citizens of France, who have suffered in poverty and oppression for so long that they have decided they&amp;#8217;ve had enough. There&amp;#8217;s a nice arc to the story that makes the individual stories matter even more when looking at the bigger picture. That said, it&amp;#8217;s no wonder that a story like Les Mis&amp;#8217; has captured the fascination of fans and filmmakers around the world. It&amp;#8217;s a universal story that everyone can relate to, but what makes it truly special is that when put against the backdrop of soaring music and melody, the story takes on a whole new meaning and evocativeness.
One can say that music is a universal langage; even without understanding a word, one can feel the emotion a song tries to convey. And without a doubt, Les Mis&amp;#8217; epic story is hammered home by music that appeals to those emotions. With songs such as &amp;#8220;I Dreamed a Dream&amp;#8221;, &amp;#8220;On My Own&amp;#8221; and &amp;#8220;Empty Chairs at Empty Tables&amp;#8221;, capturing the misery, longing and sorrow of each of the characters, the film is taken to new and even more compelling heights. The musical performances in the film were brilliant; from Anne Hathaway&amp;#8217;s fragile, heartbreaking rendition of &amp;#8220;I Dreamed a Dream&amp;#8221;, to the jolly, humorous &amp;#8220;Master of the House&amp;#8221;, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter. What made their performances stand out was that they were recorded live, with the actors singing and acting at the same time. Traditionally when musicals are adapted for the big screen, actors lip sync to a pre-recorded track (usually recorded in a studio). The problem with this is that it leaves little room for flexibility for the actors; they have to keep time with a pre-recorded track while acting at the same time. Instead, with Tom Hooper&amp;#8217;s decision to have the actors sing live, it gives them the freedom to sing in a way that matches each moment in their character&amp;#8217;s story. The result is an authenticity never before seen in musicals adapted for the screen; this method captured the magic of a broadway performance while elevating the performance with the tools cinema has to offer. For example, in a scene involving Anne Hathaway&amp;#8217;s Fantine, the audience can hear the turmoil in Hathaway&amp;#8217;s voice when she sings about shattered dreams and endless misfortune. At the same time, we get the benefits of close-up shots showing each tremble of the lips, every flutter of eyelids, along with every flash of agony in each character&amp;#8217;s eyes. The effect is that audiences feel like they are right in there with the characters, feeling everything they are feeling and living through all of the trauma that they are in. &nbsp;

One of the things that especially impressed me with this film was how certain scenes were shot in a much more intimate way than others, without a whole lot of camera work, save for the steady cam shots trained on the characters when they are singing. In Eddie Redmayne&amp;#8217;s rendition of &amp;#8220;Empty Chairs at Empty Tables&amp;#8221;, his character Marius is simply standing in the middle of a barren room of a dilapidated building, but the tension and sadness is thick in the air, all a product of very minimalistic camera work and a brilliant, moving performance from Redmayne. When he sings of fallen comrades, the audience isn&amp;#8217;t burdened with distractions of shots that cut away, but we see Marius&amp;#8217; expression change with every line he sings, making his emotions seem all the more raw and uninhibited. Similarly, when Anne Hathway is singing &amp;#8220;I Dreamed a Dream&amp;#8221;, a