“Les Miserables”
Directed by Tom Hooper
Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried,  Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks
Drama, Musical, Romance
PG-13
158 Mins

Tom Hooper‘s all singing, all dancing Les Misérables is in a word: long. Based on the musical of the same name by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, which was adapted in turn from Victor Hugo‘s 1862 novel, this massively scaled production features a whopping 49 musical numbers that fill the entirety of the film’s 160 minute runtime.

Les Misérables charts the 33 year transformation of Jean Valjean from convict to factory owner to adoptive parent as he runs from the shadow of his former self and uptight lawman, Inspector Javert, in search of redemption.

Hooper experimented with the novel idea of recording all the songs “live.” Instead of going the traditional route of pre-recording songs in a studio and lip-singing along for the feature, all of the songs were belted out in front of the camera and used for final cut. This unique approach to the feature film is surely original and allows the actors an unbound freedom to emote in the moment but the end result is extremely uneven.

The film starts strong with some outstanding acting and powerful musical numbers but immediately illuminates an obvious fact: some of the performers pipes aren’t quite up to snuff.
From the opening number, “Look Down,”  the vocal capacity of Hugh Jackman seems limited. Although he’s no stranger to musical theater- he won a Tony for “The Boy from Oz” in 2004- he just doesn’t possess the power and intensity to fit the bill of the trumpeting ballads of Jean Valjean. Don’t get me wrong, Jackman is a terrific actor and has a palpable intensity burning behind his eyes but he’s just not a terrific singer and that’s all this film is about.

Most insulting however is Jackman’s unorthodox handling of the revered tunes he’s handling. It’s one thing to adjust a piece of music in order to make it seem more natural and suiting for the silver screen but he so drastically alters the melodies and time signatures that few of the pieces he performs actually feel like songs. To call it butchery isn’t a far stretch.

Another questionable bit of casting is Russell Crowe who fills the shoes of the least empathic law officer alive- Inspector Javert. Crowe again is a top notch thespian but his singing capabilities failed to impress. He didn’t go out of a ten note range and everything from him sounded flat and spark-less. For a character  written with a drastic arc, he just wasn’t very compelling and I felt little to nothing towards him for the entirety of the film.

On the other end of the spectrum is the stirring Anne Hathaway. It’s no wonder why the trailer for the film features Hathaway’s powerful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” as it is both the emotional and musical climax of the entire film. She jolts life and chills into the number with an intoxicating finesse and has all but solidified her position as front runner for Best Supporting Actress.
However once her little ditty is over, no other piece of acting or singing ever quite reaches those highs again…and this is only thirty or so minutes in.

Entering it’s second act, the film begins to drag on and by the final act it’s running on fumes. Jackman’s acting with the eyes technique grows tiresome and his apparent lack of musical timing becomes more and more egregious especially in light of Hathaway’s triumph.

The final 100 minutes is rounded out by a number of supporting cast that are equally hit or miss.

Amanda Siegfried, who plays Valjean’s adopted daughter Cosette, suffers from an egregious case of Snow White syndrome, peddling a grating soprano that wears thin in her mere introductory moments. Her lover counterpart Marius, played by Eddie Redmayne, however offers a moving performance and actually does his tunes justice as does his secret admirer, Eponine (Samantha Barks.)

The consistent saving grace of the film though is the delightful pairing of Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as a duo of slimy innkeepers turned sewer rats. Although their singing isn’t top notch by any standard, they never were expected to be and they crank up the comic relief, offering it up in generous heaps.

What it all boils down to is a picture without a man at the reins. Hooper quite obviously had massive aspirations but I can’t help but feel that they got away from him time and time again. If you’re executing a strictly musical adaptation of a widely known piece go with actors who can kill it in the vocal department. Crowe and Jackman were quite obviously miscast as the leading men and largely lack the chill factor that makes these musicals actually work. Everything is cracked up to 11 but there is the no backbone tying everything together.

Ultimately, Tom Hooper’s experimental Les Misérables is a jigsaw of performances with no central momentum that is both exhaustive and exhausting.

C

” The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis
Adventure, Fantasy
169 Mins
PG-13

With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, director Peter Jackson has bitten off more than he can chew. Jackson has to reinvest his audience with a new and somewhat minor quest while introducing an entirely novel and risky technological advancement, a task that he ultimately fails.

The Hobbit details the journey of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a company of dwarves led by warrior prince Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) as they embark towards the conquered dwarf palace carved into the Misty Mountainsto reclaim a vast treasure stolen by the malevolent dragon, Smaug. The travelers encounter one misplaced affair after another and between the orcs, wargs, mountain trolls, storm giants, goblins, a mysterious necromancer and disapproving elves, the tale feels overstuffed and a little inorganic.

With so much going on, it sometimes becomes languid and monotonous but the visual effects, character and set design, and lavish costumes create a stunning backdrop for the tale to unfold which is even more pronounced when seen in high-frame rate 3D.

The advent of high frame rate — 48 frames per second (FPS) — technology came on the heels of complaints that 3D films shot at the industry standard (24 FPS) are shutter strobed when the camera is panning, particularly during action sequences. But do the consequences of higher frame rates outweigh the positives?

The answer is… kind of. 48 FPS presents a hyperrealism that makes camera adjustments completely unnoticeable but is distracting to the inaugural eye and, at times, uncomfortably jarring.
In scenes where characters are talking, or more notably, writing, their gestures seem unnaturally accelerated and physically inconsistent. At best, this goes unnoticed and at its worst, looks like a hi-def home video shoot.

During the action sequences though, it works brilliantly. Every blade swing is crystal clear, every slain goblin sprawling from a cliff is beautifully articulated and the sweeping camera movements create sequences that seem painterly in their scope and motion.

People typically resist tech advancement at first, from the use of commercial airplanes to iTunes updates, so it’s hard to say what the real value of this technology is. Is a commercial and critical backlash symptomatic of a natural resistance to the new or is this a more definitive rejection?

One thing is clear, it’s going to take some adjustment for the uninitiated to accept high frame rate films, a process that isn’t going to happen overnight.

But technology is not the only thing on display here and unfortunately the story can be, at turns, equally lackluster and divisive.

Whereas The Lord of the Rings was surprising touching, its emotional resonance is almost entirely absent here. The bond of the original fellowship rendered the trilogy a record-breaking 11 Oscar wins (The Return of the King) but there is little earned about the relationships in this prequel.

The hefty troop of dwarves are more caricatures than fleshed-out people and the return of Gandalf, played by McKellen, is disappointingly amiss. The inimitable light has gone from his eyes as it has from the series itself.

While a handful of cameos from familiar faces may stir nostalgia for the original triad, it rarely serves the film effectively. An introductory scene that features a glimpse of a virginal Frodo is fine but entirely unnecessary to the plot of this tale. Freeman (Sherlock) however is perfectly cast as Bilbo and remains the most promising aspect of this film’s journey.

The standout of the film though is the glorious return of Gollum, played with wit and panache by series regular Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes). While Bilbo may be stealing Gollum’s precious ring, Serkis is stealing the scene.

While nothing here is egregious, The Hobbit fails to live up to the massive heights of one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. Although it’s better than your average blockbuster both in terms of its visual razzle-dazzle and plotting, it isn’t destined to join the ranks of unforgettable classics.

The end product is a loose hodgepodge of scenes, many of which could have been left for the blu-ray extended editions. Had Jackson focused more on storytelling and thoughtful character development, The Hobbit would have become a much tighter and purposeful film.

C