Review of Les Misérables (2012) by Jill W — 08 Oct 2014

I am not much of a fan of musicals. In fact, they are my least favorite form of entertainment. However, I wanted to see Les Miserables for the story, as I've never viewed any incarnation of Les Mis.

While nearly 3 hours of 100% singing is a bit hard to swallow, the performances make most of the songs worthwhile and the story more than makes up for the rest of it. My only real complaint was the hideously poor casting of Russell Crowe.

What I liked about the filmmaking aspect of it was that most of the singing is filmed live, not overdubbed with studio recordings. Sure, this means the performances aren't flawless and are sometimes out of synch with the music, but it portrays the story as it is intended, in a very stage-like display.

This doesn't prove a positive thing for Russell Crowe who, while he may have looked the part, was painful to hear singing.