Les Misérables

I must start this post by saying that I have not seen the stage musical, so this will not be a comparison.

Les Mis is getting a lot of Awards attention and I rightly so, The end of the film is incredibly emotional, followed by very rousing finale. I came out of the cinema with a massive smile on my face thinking what a great film it was, it even got a round of applause. However once the euphoria of the ending has died down a bit and I analysed it in the cold light of day, parts of the previous 2 hours didn't quite live up to the hype.

Anne Hathaways rendition of I dream a dream is absolutely amazing and incredibly emotional, I wanted to applaud as if it were a theatre, I think it is unfair to compare it with Susan Boyles Britain's got talent moment because Subo's performance was exactly that a one off performance of a song, Hathaway sings in Character and in Context and therefore it is not a fair comparison. I do not, however, think that Hathaway should get a best actress Oscar, not because she isn't a great actress, she is, but she is hadly in the film, it is the one song that makes the performance, the rest is largely unremarkable.

The Same cannot be said for Jackman and Crowe, who both put in great performances, especially considering almost all the dialogue is sung, and they are actors not singers.

I did find the film overly long, at over 2 and a half hours it does drag a little in places, and some of the story seems to fail logic, although I guess that must be true in the musical as well so possibly not the fault of the screenwriters.

Over all though a very good movie, especially the end, will it win the best picture Oscar? probably, should it win? I'm not so sure, my vote would still go to Silver Linings playbook 8/10