Review of Les Misérables (1998) by J Brigham H — 21 Jul 2012
This is one of the most interesting films I've ever seen. Like the book, it is basically two stories tied together by the same two major characters of Valjean (Neeson) and Javert (Rush), but what makes this so peculiar is the vast difference in quality between these two parts.
The first half mainly entails Valjean's interactions with Fantine (Thurman) as the new police inspector Javert attempts to reveal Valjean's past as a convict and return him to a life in prison.
The first half of the film is stellar with a magnificent cast headlined by Neeson, Rush and Thurman. The tone is perfect and the emotions are real. The heights reached by this first half make the atrocious second half all the worse.
The second half is about Valjean's life with Fantine's daughter Cosette (Danes) who is now his ward. The second half is rather uninteresting and wallows in irritating teen angst as Danes falls for Matheson's Marius without Valjean's approval in a messy and tired story of teen love and elderly opposition.
Matheson's performance is of a pseudo poetic type, while Danes is the annoying angsty teen whose world is against them. Even the continued performances of those great heavyweights Neeson and Rush can't save the second half.
This review of Les Misérables (1998) was written by J Brigham H on 21 Jul 2012.
Les Misérables has generally received positive reviews.
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