Review of Les Misérables (2012) by Ashley C — 11 Feb 2014

While it's the movie that everyone's rambling on about this year, I don't see what all the fuss is about. The music is pretty, but it's overly melodramatic, even when melodrama is seemingly unnecessary; it's this odd seriousness that makes the musical hard to take seriously. Russell Crowe shouldn't have signed up for a role that called for him singing an entire movie, when he jumped, I applauded. Jackman and Hathaway carried the beached whale of a film. Another problem I often have is when a movie gets more press for what happened off-screen than on. She's really singing! She's really crying! Her hair is actually being cut off! It felt like a bunch of gimmicks one would get from 50s B-movie fare (in eye-popping 3-D!) Did it improve the actual quality of the film? Probably not.

It's mediocre, but worst of all, it's bloated and bombastic Oscar-bait. And as Tommy Wiseau might say: "get out, get out, get out of my face!".