LESS MISERABLE SUMMER

This summer, Les Misérables will hit Europe on DVD!
Guess who's gonna buy the film?
To celebrate such an event, I will give my review of The Film of Last Winter (this review contains SPOILERS, so read at your own risk if you're not familiar with the plot!):

Jean Valjean with little Cosette in his arms.

A reformed convict, hunted down by national authorities in spite of his change of heart, takes an abused orphaned child under his wing, then turns the waif into a "beautiful person". A decade later, the adopted child falls in love with a young person on a higher rung of the social ladder. The lovers, after the violent death of a potential rival, marry and live happily ever after, while the "fairy-godsire-convict" dies a painful death.
While Hugo was writing the national epic of modern France, Dickens published Great Expectations, a story remarkably similar to Les Misérables (the only difference is the gender of the adopted child: unlike Cosette, Pip is male).
Valjean, the convict, is played by Hugh Jackman: Wolverine in the X-Men trilogy (and the Easter Bunny in Rise of the Guardians). The part of Valjean has attained, on the French stage and screen, a reputation like that of Hamlet or Romeo: actors such as Gérard Depardieu (AKA Obelix!) have given life to such a vibrant and complex character. Like Cassio's story in Othello, Jean Valjean's is one of redress, but darker and more mature than the young lieutenant's (it stretches across decades, rather than lasting a week). The most interesting thing about Valjean, IMHO, is how a good deed (he could have been betrayed by Monsignor, who gave him the silverware plus the candlesticks!) erased all the hatred and spite that he harboured after twenty years of imprisonment. This good deed was the turning point: there could be no plot without it.
Jackman could have won the Oscar for Best Male Lead, but, malheureusement, it went to Abe Lincoln. Plain Abe Lincoln, not the Vampire Hunter.

Russell Crowe as Javert.

Russell Crowe in a blue coat with epaulets? Remember Aubrey from Master and Commander? (He is certainly dashing, with that blond ponytail of his, plus such a uniform!)

Anyway, no matter if as a French or British officer, Crowe looks good in uniform, he looks good in blue, and his baritone singing voice is beyond comparison (actually, he wanted the part of Javert so much that he trained his vocal cords on purpose). Listen!


To clear a common misconception, Javert is not evil. He is as evil as Lafeu in All's Well, a Nazi officer (let's say Lieutenant Kotler), or the good cops in slasher films. He's just a slave to the system. And a devout Catholic, taught by his guardian that good people are good, bad people are bad, and neither can change at all. No surprise that he snaps upon discovering that Valjean really has reformed (when the "criminal" sets him free and saves his life from the revolutionaries)!
So, why has he spent decades rising through the ranks of the National Guard in tireless pursuit of Valjean (like Ahab after Moby Dick, Iago after Cassio, or the coyote after the roadrunner)?
A memorable scene or two: when he tries to infiltrate the barricade in civilian garb. Enjolras lets him in (so naive!), but a certain illiterate streetrat reveals his true identity. Then, when Gavroche is killed, Javert tries to hold back his tears and places a medal on his wounded chest.
To sum up: An interesting character, played by an interesting actor. The only con: that blue coat betrays Crowe's slightly increasing waistline.

Madame Thénardier and her soused spouse.

The real bad guys: Helena Bonham-Carter (the Queen of Hearts in 2010 Alice, Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Pirelli in Sweeney Todd) team up as the devious Thénardiers, owners of the "Sergeant at Waterloo" inn and Cosette's abusive foster parents. Their rather catchy leitmotif hovers between ominousness and playfulness.

They're established as both chaotic villains and comic relief, much like Iago, right from the start. And even though the Cohen-Carter tandem trades the sergeant's uniform for a satin waistcoat and the holly hair dec for an elegant parure, they fail in their attempt to crash Cosette's and Marius's wedding, and they are whisked away by servants while singing their song with different lyrics. 

In short: wicked, but funny. Their antics (especially, during the wedding crash attempt) made me laugh.

Éponine Thénardier, yet another star-crossed lover.

The Thénardier children: are they illegitimate, actually? 'Cause Gavroche, the "littlest revolutionary", is willing to risk his life to help those on his side. But it's big sis Éponine who takes the cake: upon coming of age, she completely changes from wicked stepsister to tragic heroine: she takes a bullet meant for the heart of the one she loves, in spite of the fact that Marius sees her as a friend and prefers Cosette. The first martyr of the revolution is played by a young and promising Samantha Barks, who really gets inside her character.

Enjolras: a true leader, and the one I loved.

Enjolras: leader of a rag-tag team of university students, craftspeople and streetrats against the Royal Army and the National Guard. He's cool. He's charming. Though he's somewhat naive (letting a disguised Javert in), but aren't all great leaders so?

When they shot him dead in the heat of the final battle, I couldn't even speak!

Played by another young talent, Aaron Kyle Tveit, Enjolras was the main reason why I left the cinema singing "Red and Black" while daydreaming.