So yesterday, Les Miserables having finally arrived in Orkney, we went off to see it. I was sooooo looking forward to it. I've never managed to see it on stage, although I had a friend in Leeds who went to London every year for a performance she loved it so much. Son No 2 had the CD of the original cast and I've heard that of course, but it's not the same as seeing a performance. I've been anxiously checking the cinema listings for what seems like months now, and had even got to the stage where I thought I must have missed it. [Although how I could have done that was a mystery].
OH being a bit of a cynic, and having heard tales of people snuffling and crying, and knowing how music can make me cry at the best of times, I had tried to drum up some enthusiasm amongst my female friends for going, as an excuse for not going with Mr Sarcasm Personified. No luck. I got a 'Not my thing', and an 'I want to see it but with my husband'. I said I might go alone. OH gave me his wounded puppy look. So we went together.
I bridled a bit at the price of the big bag of Revels we bought for during the performance. Later on I was glad we had them. OH offered me two of the larger smoother ones and suggested I use one in each ear, and really I was so appalled by the singing that I was tempted to try it.
This is a film of a musical. It therefore follows, in my mind, that one of the first things you must cast on is singing ability. I mean, why shoot yourself in the foot in advance by using people who can't sing? I genuinely don't understand why anyone would do that.
Of the three principals, Hathaway, Crowe and Jackman, none were good. Crowe cannot sing at all. You can tell me until you're blue in the face that he used to have a rock band and all I'll do is ask whether he played the drums. He cannot sing. Nor can he act while trying to sing. I mean, I don't rate Crowe as an actor at the best of times, but lots of people do, and in deference to them I can only say that in this instance he must have been concentrating so hard on the [truly awful ] singing that he forgot to act. There is a character there in Javert to be found; not an attractive one but a fairly common one, the one who is driven by obedience, duty, a belief that if the law is not followed to the letter then chaos will reign. That's in the words of the songs Javert sings, there's nothing wrong from that point of view. It's all there, but I'm afraid Mr Woodentop couldn't make me believe in it.
Hathaway has about five notes in her mid voice that she can hit and she was fine with those. Sadly her songs meant she was taken well out of that particular range. I will forgive her to a degree because she did manage to channel some really raw emotions through what she did, but a good singer could have conveyed the emotions without making me wince at the ugliness of the sounds coming out of the mouth.
Jackman was a puzzle because I know he has done at least one musical in the West End and I expected that he would be good. But he lacked support and his phrasing was - well, it was all short. There were some nice notes and he was better than Crowe, but that's not really saying very much.
The younger smaller parts were generally much better sung, apart from Amanda Seyfried as Cosette who sounded like a demented flute. And the obligatory urchin, Gavroche, was totally incomprehensible. Overall I felt if they had transposed quite a lot of the music down many of the actors would have been happier and performed better.
The thing is that duff notes and poor singing act on me in the same way as nails on a blackboard and after twenty minutes I was totally tense and wound up. So it was difficult to keep perspective on the rest of the film. Looking back there were enjoyable things about it. The music is lovely and the end was quite moving. The costumes and make up were excellent and Baren Cohen and Bonham Carter as the Thenadiers were wonderful. There are some holes in the plot you could drive a tank division through of course, but that's down to Hugo and the source material, not the writers of the musical.
I know if I hadn't been looking forward to it quite so much then I wouldn't have felt so let down. So perhaps I ought to limit my expectations. Although to be honest finding people who can sing in a musical film shouldn't, surely, be too much to ask?
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