Disclaimers first:<\/p>\n
All of that will likely color my review.
\nForgive me.
\n* * *
\nSpoilers are to be expected. I’m writing this under the assumption that you know either (a) the show, (b) the plot, (c) the music, or (d) all of the above. Skip this if you aren’t in those categories as I’ll probably blow something for you.
\n* * *
\nI’ve seen some reviews absolutely trashing the film. They were written by folks who didn’t like the theater show. Why in the world you’d have someone review the film who hated the show is beyond me. Ignore the haters. It’s just silly writing tricks.
\n* * *
\nSo. I loved the show in 1987. I thought the theater tricks—the turntable, the bridge, the clever use of lighting—made the show rise above just-another-musical. I also love the music. I like the themes. I like the passion. It probably helped that I was 20 with all that implies.
\nNow, in my 40s I appreciate Hugo’s text. His descriptions—which are carried over into the show and film admirably—are lovely and generous and genius. This is particularly true when dealing with difficult characters like Javert.<\/p>\n
But enough evasion, here’s what I think:
\nIf you never saw the theater show but you like musicals you will very likely love this film.<\/p>\n
Final thought: if you think you want to see it, do.
\nIf you hate musicals, stay away (it’s really an opera).
\nIf you loved the stage show, enjoy the long shots, but keep the London Cast Album close to your heart.<\/p>\n
(p.s., Thing 2 adds—the movie was amazing, awesome, and so, so emotional! And yes, I took him out to the bathroom during the “Lovely Ladies” scene.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Disclaimers first: I loved Les Mis when I saw it in London in 1987. I have owned the soundtrack since then. Yes, I do think Colm Wilkinson is the yardstick by which every Jean Valjean should be measured. I’ve only just started reading the book (I’m up to where Valjean is running to get young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,12,5,65],"tags":[353,355,354],"class_list":["post-2359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-fun","category-deus-ex-film","category-general-ranting","category-writing","tag-movie","tag-musical","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crafting-a-life.com\/mamaoknits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}