Film Review - Les Miserables (2012)

Based off the famous Stage musical, Les Mis is directed by Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) and stars Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, a man who serves his time for stealing bread and makes a name for himself as a local mayor but the ruthless Inspector Javier (Russell Crowe) is still convinced he is a thief.

I went into Les Mis with mixed expectations, I was aware of the musical and it had a good cast but I wasn't sure whether the film would be any good, were those expectations correct?

Well surprisingly they weren't as I actually did enjoy the film better than I thought I would despite the all singing all dancing tone the film has though Hooper prepares his audience for it from the first moments of the film, Jackman is great in his role and his singing is fantastic, Crowe is better than I thought he would be and he actually has a nicely soothing singing voice though I couldn't help but think of Lee Marvin in the Simpsons parody of Paint your Wagon at times.

Another person who also deserves praise is Anne Hathaway in her small role as her singing is quite good as well and her big song moment in the movie reminded me a lot of "Part of your World" from the Little Mermaid as her vocals and the song she sung were very similar.

However the film also has one big fault as well and that is its length, the film is way too long and could have done with a good 25 to 30 minutes trimmed from its 160 minute running time as the long runtime does make you tire of the constant singing and dancing in the second half and you sit there thinking "Can this all be over now please?"

But all in all, Les Mis is a good musical and should certainly please fans of the stage show despite the long running time, 2 out of 5.