Striving but not really succeeding

DVDs:


	• Les Miserables Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush Sony Pictures, 1998 average customer review:based on 223 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

New Version of a Classic

I heard that Les Miserables was possibly the best book ever written, so I bought the DVD. I was not disappointed. Of course, the book was written a long time ago, so the story is a little stilted, and does not hold any real surprises--until the end. It was thought provoking and entertaining, which is all too rare these days.

Striving but not really succeeding

It's obviously not easy to compress for the screen something as complex, vast, and subtle as Hugo's novel, particularly when the focus of the book is internal and a movie is necessarily something that is focused on the external. Coupled to these difficulties comes the inevitable Hollywood fixation on test market inputs, happy endings, and schlock-horror-thrills violence. The result is a movie like this, which starts moderately well and then ambles off the rails around the mid-way point.

Liam Neeson is an accomplished actor, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from this movie. His Jean Valjean lacks nuance, perhaps because he's forced into portraying situations that are at times in conflict with the essence of who Valjean is supposed (pace Hugo) to be. His redemption scene is brief and superficial, and his supposed inner torment during the crucial trial scene (in which he ultimately elects to confess his true identity in order to save the idiot in the dock) resembles nothing so much as a man trying to determine which flavor of ice cream to select from the freezer. The only bright spot is Uma Thurman's performance, which is both unexpectedly accomplished and deeply moving. If only Neeson could have produced a performance to match this would have made the movie worth watching.

As for the fabricated love-story conclusion which owes nothing to Hugo and everything to Hollywood, the less said about that the better except for the masterful camera work, in which Valjean's spiritual euphoria is brilliantly conveyed by a long tracking shot that gradually opens up from the gray of the quayside to include finally the features of Paris and the open sky.

If you enjoyed Hugo's book you'd be much better off seeing the French version with Gerard Depardieu, or better still find the wonderful 1990 interpretation starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, which avoids all the normal pitfalls of bringing a huge book to the screen while capturing the essence and subtlety of Hugo's masterpiece.

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An Underrated Adaptation

I've been a Les Miserables fan for about as long as I've been a concsious being. I love the musical, the novel and several film versions. However adapting Hugo's epic novel (easily over a thousand pages) which spans several decades into a 2 hour film is a difficult task for anyone. The various made for TV miniseries have the luxury of time to present the story in something resembling it's entirty.

Given the challenges I think the creative team did an admirable job. Yes, there are some huge cuts (gone is Enjolras whose function is filled by Marius, Eponine, the Threnardiers) but the writers of the screenplay manage to streamline the story fairly well, keeping the focus on the fugative Jean Valjean's redemption. Imprisoned for almost two decades for stealing a loaf of bread, Valjean leaves prisona hardened criminal who takes refuge one night in the home of the Bishop of Dinge. Valjean repays the Bishop's kindness by stealing the Bishop's silver. When he is caught and brought before the Bishop, the Bishop tells the police that he'd given the silver to Valjean as a gift. He then tells Valjean took keep what he has stolen and take more besides, but that he must use the money to become an honest man. Valjean decides to start anew. He breaks his parole and we meet him ten years later as the mayor of a town and a small business owner. However when a new police inspector, Javert, arrives in town, Valjean is recognized as who he is and is forced to confront his past. Therest of the story follows Valjean as he attempts to save a dying prostitute (Fantine) and failing that, raise her orphaned daughter (Cosette) while he elludes the grasp of the single minded Javert. The novel and musical deal with many subpolts however this film narrows it's focus to the central relationship between Valjean an Javert, and the theme of sin and redemption.

The acting is by far the film's greatest strength. Liam Neeson portrayes Valjean as a good man, but also a flawed man. Many actors fall into the trap of portraying Valjean as a saint- Neeson portrays him as a man struggling with himself and the world and attempting to let the best of himself dictate his actions. Geoffrey Rush is a perfect foil as Javert, a man who strictly adheres to a moral code. However his rules leave no room for extenuating circumastances and thus there is no place for mercy in his mind. These conflicting worldviews are the crux of the tension in the film. In a supporting role as Fantine, Uma Thurman is introduced to us as a prostitute desparately trying to support her young daughter who boards with a greedy innkeeper and his wife. We see her sell her har, her clothes and finally her body to support her child. Her health deteriorates. When we first meet her she is stressed looking, when she finally encounters Valjean she is a wreck of a human being. Looking at her worn expression asnd the sparkle that appears when she speaks of her daughter the viewer can imagine the beauty she was before the harshness of the world beat her down. Cosette, Fantine's daughter, never really knows the mother who loved her so much. Valjean takes her from the innkeeper and his wife (where we see her being neglected and abused) and raises her as his own. However he never tells her the truth about who her mother was or his own past. As she enters womanhood Cosette knows that there is something her father isn't telling her and is frustrated by his refusal to do so. When she falls in love with a young revolutionary (Marius) she feels the need to hide the relationship from Valjean who she knows would not approve. People criticize Claire Danes for portraying Cosette as "spoiled" or "bratty" while the character should be sweet and oblivious.I think Danes wisely shows Cosette's love for her adoptive father, her gratefulness to him for all he has given her but is also angry at him for underestimating her intelligence.

The film falters where it deals with the student uprising that preceded the second French revolution. It doesn't have sufficient time to explain the political motivations for events and therefore things feel hsatily brushed owver. As a character Marius appears to be a cypher. His actions seem completely unmotivated. The editing of these parts feels forced and hastily pieced together.

Still Billie August creates an admirable atmosphere and allows Victor Hugo's most important themes to shine through.

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Good for a movie

If you have read the book then you will probably be disappointed in this film due to how they change the plot to git in the time allotted for the film. However if you enjoyed the play, and did not read the book, then you will probably enjoy the film. The casting was fantastic and the scences were well done.

I never saw the play

But i really liked this movie.......I have also shared it with some friends and they liked it. It may not be totally like the play but it is still a worth while film.

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