Les Misérables (2012) - 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital [4K UHD]

Why should I write another review, when to me the best reviews for this film are so spot-on terrific they can choke me up to the point of tears all by themselves. Instead, I would like to focus on some things that I haven't seen mentioned yet. But first, a bit of background. To begin, I do not cry at sad movies. I will sometimes tear up at happy ones. But I have never cried throughout an entire movie, or at least 90% of it. Yes, the emotion of this film is unmatched. It is astonishingly intense throughout: electrifying, appalling, tragic, remarkably eye-opening, and finally, a most exquisite, triumphant victory of goodness and love over all that is not.The plot and story line have been so well covered by the other reviewers, that I need add nothing. However, the characters, and the cast who play those roles are, with very few exceptions, breathtaking. What I would like to add in this review is a bit of a comparison with the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables. Much has been said about the "live" singing, and in addition, its (opinionated) below par quality as well. Conversely, I was amazed at how magnificent it was! I don't believe that someone who has never been in a recording studio can remotely appreciate how difficult it is to sing "live" like this cast did and make it sound good. And as one reviewer pointed out, the combination of camera closeness and live singing allowed for magnificent articulation, where every word was clearly heard, and even felt, something so often absent in today's movies.Now the characters, bearing in mind that virtually the entire film is sung: Ann Hathaway was magnificent as Fantine, and Eddie Redmayne as Marius may have been the best of all. His "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was a performance for the ages. Samantha Barks was breathtaking as Eponine, and played that role in both the Concert and the film. So here may be a good place for the comparison I mentioned earlier, and perhaps the best place to begin is with Javert. In the Concert, Javert was played by Norm Lewis, a brilliant baritone who also sings with great expression. And although he can sing dramatically better in a professional sense than Russell Crowe, I have to give the nod to Crowe. In fact I thought he was fantastic. Maybe his voice doesn't compare with Lewis, and although Lewis's expression was superb, it was Crowe's acting-singing combination that caused a synergistic outpouring, and made his performance awesome.Now to Hugh Jackman. As one reviewer said, he was "splendid...and it could be argued carried the entire film." Except...I had seen the Concert before the movie. A British tenor, Alfie Boe, played Jean Valjean. I am very far indeed from being an expert, but I now honestly believe he has the greatest male voice I have ever heard. And I will tell you exactly why. I think many would agree that "Bring Him Home" is one of the quintessential musical numbers in the film. Alfie Boe is one of the very, very few tenors who can sing with both rich, full volume, and a magnificent falsetto as well, with which he can liltingly vocalize an extremely high note, very softly, and with perfect vibrato. To me, the last line of "Bring Him Home" is perfect for this soft, emotional finish, and his standing ovation after this at the Concert seemed unending.This should not detract, but actually add to Jackman's terrific performance. To sing "Bring Him Home" the way Jackman did was more difficult, not less! And it should be a given that Jackman had one of the most difficult roles to play, ever. At the beginning, it truly looked as if Jackman was "standing in his grave."There is not much I can add to the performances of Colm Wilkinson as the loving, life-changing Bishop, while Amanda Seyfried as Cosette is a lovely soprano with spectactular range. I will always have a warm spot in my heart for little Gavroche, played by Daniel Huttlestone. Perhaps the one negative thought I had was that in the Concert, Matt Lucas as Thenardier and Jenny Galloway as his Madame were a bit stronger than Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham in the identical roles in the film. The movie, however, was able to capture the hilarious antics of the duo's pickpocketing methods that the Concert could not do.This was a movie that director Tom Hooper took considerable risks to bring us delightfully new things as well. In addition to being entirely sung, I thought it was a bit of creative magic to use the same 4 or 5 melodic lines to create all of the songs, just with different lyrics.I hate to use an old cliché, "paradigm shift," that in the nineties went so viral as to become virtually meaningless, but to me, this represents a true paradigm shift in filmmaking. It is years ahead of its time and should become the standard that many later films strive for. It was The Best Picture of the Year. Period.

Yes, it's all sung. Les Miserables is two hours and forty minutes of song. There's no real spoken dialogue the entire way through. Every minute is sung live as well. And if this bothers you, please skip "Les Mis" and enjoy watching something like "Twilight" or "Jack Reacher". Tom Hooper made this film a game-changer for the way a movie-musical is supposed to work. Lip-synching a pre-recorded studio version seems economical, but today, can allow for auto-tuning and editing a singer's voice. It doesn't feel personal. The voices in "Les Mis" sound raw and real. The actors sang live onset with earpieces playing piano accompaniment, with a 70-piece orchestra being added in in post production. The music sounds extraordinary. There sure as hell isn't any auto-tuning going on.For example, take Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream". At this point in the story, we don't know Fantine very well, but we see the struggle that she's put through. She's at her lowest point. Hathaway half-belts and half-sobs the iconic song, the entire thing being filmed in one take. It's an extremely emotional performance that will bring any person with a heart, to tears.Criticism that I've been hearing of the film mostly revolves around the performances of Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman, as Javert and Valjean. I think both of these guys did fantastic jobs, quite frankly. Crowe isn't the best singer in the world, but his voice fits the part of Javert very well. As for Jackman, well, it could be argued that he carried the entire film. I think he did a splendid job; the role of Jean Valjean is a giant undertaking, and I think he nailed it.However, the real excellence of this film lies in the supporting cast. Everybody is perfectly cast, but particularly Samantha Barks in the role of Eponine. She played the same character in the 25th Anniversary performance of Les Miserables, only two years ago. One small criticism; my favorite part of Eponine's solo (and theme song to self-loathing masochists everywhere) "On My Own", the beginning part, is cut entirely. However, once you see what Barks does with this song it's easily forgiven.Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, who look like they're in "Sweeney Todd 2", are great comic relief as the Thenardiers. Cohen is the only cast member in this Paris-set film who sings in a French accent, however... I find that strange. Eddie Redmayne and Aaron Tveit are perfect as Marius and his colleague Enjolras. Redmayne's "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", near the end of the film, will make you cry. His voice goes to extraordinary places, and in such an emotional number, where he's telling the story of his friends who are no longer with him, this is a place where the live singing truly shines.The live singing, itself, is a huge undertaking, cinematically. Director Tom Hooper certainly had alot at stake with this project, however, there are still things that he could have done better. There are so many close-ups in the film. While they work for solos like "I Dreamed A Dream" and "Empty Chairs", they don't work for others. I also kind of feel like Hooper used the fish-eye camera lens a little too often, but these are inconsequential criticisms that don't make the film any less powerful. I saw this movie a week before it came out because I won advance screening tickets and I have known the song I Dreamed A Dream my whole life but I have never seen the musical on stage or any of the adaptations before. I went into this with no expectations at all. At first I thought the movie started off kind of fragmented and I figured because it had to introduce everybody and I was right. The film ended up as it went on drawing me in more and more and making me fall in love with it and by the end i was mesmerized with how wonderful and amazing the movie is. I believe they picked perfect roles because after i saw the movie i listened to the Broadway soundtrack and i believe they did very well on picking out the cast for their vocal ranges and capabilities. I think anyone who loves the musical or is a musical person should defiantly see this movie because they will not be disappointed one bit by how amazing it is.