Rating of
3/4
Les Miserables!
MovieAddict - wrote on 02/03/13
Could you build a new life with mistakes of your past haunting you?
Set in 1815, convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) has served nineteen years in prison for stealing bread to feed his sister’s child. He is released on parole by prison guard Javert (Russell Crowe), although Javert feels that Jean is a born criminal and will return to jail eventually. Jean is unable to find work because of his status as an ex-convict and resorts to sleeping on the street. He is taken in by a kindly bishop and spends a night in a church but he steals the church's silver druing the night and is arrested. The forgiving Bishop lies to the authorities, claiming the silver was a gift, thereby facilitating Jean's release.
Touched by the Bishop’s love, grace and generosity Jean breaks parole and begins an honest life under a new identity. Eight years pass, and Jean is now the mayor of a small town and owner of a factory. One of his workers, Fantine (portrayed by Anne Hathaway), is exposed as an unwed mother and fired by her lecherous foreman after she rejected his advances. Fantine with no other options, resorts to prostitution to support herself and send whatever she has left to her daughter Cosette (Isabelle Allen).
One dismal night Fantine is seen arguing with a customer by the rigidly moral Javert, who is now police inspector, and seems destined for imprisonment but is rescued by Jean, and taken to the hospital. Fantine close to death is promised by him that he will find her daughter who is being "cared for" by an unscrupulous innkeeper and his wife. (portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter)
Meanwhile despite initial suspicions that the Mayor is Jean, Javert arrests another man he believes to be Jean and offers the mayor his resignation. Valjean declines, exonerates the man believed to be him and goes on the run.
Rather than concerning himself solely with his own freedom, Jean seeks out the daughter of the now-deceased Fantine but the deceitful innkeepers extort a large sum of money before allowing Jean to leave with Cosette and then inform the police who are hot on his trail.
The rest of the film focuses on Jean being constantly pursued relentlessly by Javert while raising Cosette to adulthood (played by Amanda Seyfried) as she falls in love with a student turned revolutionary fighter named Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who is also the object of a one-sided crush by the daughter of Cosette's former caretakers, Eponine. (Samantha Barks)
The sets, locations and costumes are stunning, capturing vividly the squalor of revolutionary Paris (and that's before the scene in the filthy sewers. The final scene is beautifully done and if it doesn't leave you in tears you check your pulse.
