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to think that Russell Crowe is really not that bad in Les Mis?

164 replies

Lottapianos · 22/01/2013 16:33

Just back from seeing the film and I LOVED IT! I saw the stage show about 10 years ago and it was great hearing all the songs again. I thought all the singers were absolutely fabulous apart from Russell Crowe - but I had been led to believe he was a total disaster and massacred all the songs. I thought he did fine - apart from 'Stars' which was a real disappointment (such a beautiful song). He really looked the part and super hunky in his lovely uniform. I don't think he disgraced himself with his singing at all. He was hardly Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia Grin

Thought Hugh Jackman's voice was about 90% great, a few wobbles though. The start of 'Bring Him Home' was not good.

OP posts:
ElphabaTheGreen · 22/01/2013 22:20

OH! LOVED Enjolras getting shot out the window, ending up upside down with the flag wrapped around him (v. famous image in the stage show in case you haven't seen it and think I'm being hideously macabre).

Also, reading between the lines in the book, Grantaire was gay with a thing for Enjolras, which is why he rushed up to die next to him. A bit sorry that wasn't referenced in the fillum since they went to the effort of recreating the detail of the final battle quite faithfully from the book.

gaelicsheep · 22/01/2013 22:21

In the book the Thenardiers are villains through and through. There's an extended passage about the Battle of Waterloo in which Thenardier features heavily. I really must re-read it as the details are very hazy. Like an earlier poster I also do not like the very comic portrayals that have become the norm. This film redressed the balance a bit but I would have liked to have seen a sinister Dog Eat Dog, as well as the full attempted burglary scene.

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 22:22

Google comes up trumps.Apparently according to the book Javert is 11 years younger than Valjean.Valjean was born in 1769 and Javert was born in 1780.

gaelicsheep · 22/01/2013 22:24

I was GUTTED at that scene with Enjolras. I loved the reference to the show but it was too early and I was left wondering how on earth the climax to the instrumental Bring Him Home section (which I felt was brutally shortened lie too many other bits) would play out. It was solved, of course, by the medal scene which was inspired. I don't know how true to Javert's character it was, but I think it helps ram home that he is not a villain, just a misguided single minded duty-bound man. That moment got me and all was forgiven from then on.

ElphabaTheGreen · 22/01/2013 22:24
Hmm

Was that info gleaned from Victor Hugo's director's cut?

gaelicsheep · 22/01/2013 22:28

Third listening to RC on YouTube (official soundtrack version). It's actually growing on me!

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 22:28

I'm sure it is in the book.There's definitely dates mentioned because I worked out that Valjean was 25 or 26 when he was arrested for stealing the load of bread.26 I think because it was the winter after he became responsible for his sister's children,so I think it's pretty canon.

monstermissy · 22/01/2013 22:30

Never seen it on the stage and did wonder at the beginning if I would like it. Oh wow I loved it, saw it Sunday going back this Sunday for another go.

I have never watched a film where the audience clapped ay the end. I shit you not everyone clapped. I cried in the car on the way home. Fabulous!

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 22:30

The Thernardiers are pretty evil in the book.They have no redeeming features that I can recall.They treat Cosette terribly.They steal,they rob corpses and even the dying,and lie and cheat. At least Javert has a moral code and is doing what he believes is right i.e upholding the law.

ElphabaTheGreen · 22/01/2013 22:33

They basically abandon Gavroche and it's a wonder they don't pimp Eponine and out.

ElphabaTheGreen · 22/01/2013 22:35

Everyone clapped and a few even yelled 'bravo!' and 'brilliant!' in the session I went to today monster. It was Tight-Arse Tuesday so full of pensioners who probably thought the actors could hear them

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 22:35

Yes there's that too. They're far worse than Javert imho.He's misguided.They don't care about right or wrong.They only care about themselves.

ElphabaTheGreen · 22/01/2013 22:37

Azelma (Eponine's sister). Cheers, Google.

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 22:53

No one clapped when I saw it.It wasn't the biggest audience though,perhaps because it was in an independent cinema,and it was a fairly early showing.

gaelicsheep · 22/01/2013 22:56

I saw it on the first evening in our local independent. There were probably 30 or 40 people there but they did clap! I do kind of wish I'd seen it in a big cinema for the atmosphere, but then it would have cost twice as much.

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 23:01

I was first out of the cinema though as I had a train to catch so as soon as the credits hit I was out of there,which isn't what I normally do.

I'm also tempted to see it again in a larger cinema for the big audience,and my local independent is actually a little more expensive,but I'd feel bad about giving the money to the chain instead,and you don't tend to get anyone talking through it,or eating loudly in the independent cinema.

MarmaladeSkies · 22/01/2013 23:04

One little thing that's bothering me about the film is how the hell did Marius get through the sewers without developing some ghastly,and most likely fatal,disease?

AudrinaAdare · 22/01/2013 23:29

Grin at did Javert jump into the Seine when he realised how bad his rendition of Stars was.

I am also more forgiving of Russell if that scene was his idea.

Marmalade I think it was just luck probably. On the thread in Chat someone suggested that JVJ sickened and died after his sewer dip in the midst of a Cholera epidemic. Perhaps Marius did contract it and survived due to being enormously rich young and strong.

They were right boring bastards in my local cinema. Nobody clapped. I wanted to stand up at the end when they sang, "will you JOIN in our CRUSADE?"

ProPerformer · 23/01/2013 00:18

Ok, I don't really mean this totally seriously but:

Wouldn't it be great to do a 'sing-along a Les Mis' like they do with the film of Sound Of Music and Rocky Horror?

I'd go! Grin

MortenHasNiceShirts · 23/01/2013 00:27

I went with high hopes. But was incredibly disappointed. I just didn't like it at all. The singing was uniformly awful (with a few exceptions). I can't believe I spent nearly three hours of my life listening to Hugh Jackman singing in a very mediocre way. And why were there so many close-ups? Is there a thread around for people who didn't like it?

Tallalime · 23/01/2013 00:40

I loved it, I too was expecting RC to be godawful but in the end I thought he was pretty good.

AS was the one who had me twitching every time she opened her mouth. Though I dislike both Cosette and Marius.

Her name isn't even really Cosette is it - in the book I mean.

I loved that CW was cast - Frances Ruffelle was in it too!

CheerfulYank · 23/01/2013 01:08

No, I think Cosette is just what Fantine called her.

I agree about the sewers...my friends and I were whispering about infection during that part!

ripsishere · 23/01/2013 01:18

I'll join a 'not bothered either way' group. I saw it a couple of weeks ago at DDs insistence. She alleged she would be the only girl at her school who hadn't seen it if we didn't go.
It was OK, I haven't seen the stage show so had nothing to compare it to. A lot of my enjoyment was spoiled I think by the three lots of subtitles on the screen. At one point, must have been a long sentence, I couldn't actually see a picture.
I may buy it on Saturday on DVD (some naughty shops here have it in stock already).

Colyngbourne · 23/01/2013 08:10

I really rate RC as Javert (well, he's pretty much great in most of his films, from Romper Stomper on). His voice was very decent. Surely the point of the live singing is partly for the emotion and freshness but also to free the actors from imposed singing styles: why should every actor in a musical sing from the chest "powerfully"? Why shouldn't a character be able to "warble" if that is her vocal style? I pretty much disagree with someone being "corrected" out of their natural voice just so that Les Mis purists can have their perfect "Philip Quast/Colm Wilkinson-a-like" sound that they demand.

This is partly why Les Mis worked completely for me. I've seen stage productions and anniversary DVD's and listened to soundtracks for many years but this felt more real and true to character/actor - even Jackman's nasal "Bring Me Home".

Lovely to hear the medal was Crowe's idea. And I agree with Elphaba that the Thenardiers being toned down and more despicable was the right line to take in the film.

ElphabaTheGreen · 23/01/2013 08:55

I agree with you Colyngebourne re: the voices. I didn't want RC to sound exactly like Philip Quast - just taking a bit of a cue in terms of talking some lines a bit more for emotional intensity. By singing it through so much, it becomes more of a focus on his voice, which is not so great.

And I am the first person to say musical theatre is not about great singing voices. Opera, yes. Musical theatre, no. Opera, you should come out talking about a fab high B flat. Music theatre could have a complete non-singer (Rex Harrison, anyone? Richard Burton in Camelot? Judi Dench's Send in the Clowns?) but if they've hit the emotion, and used a certain musicality to get there, job done. Hence, sod HJ's nasality - he's reinvented Jean Valjean. Anne Hathaway - well, SuBo has a better 'vocal line' but which version of IDAD left you grasping for superlatives? I think with RC, his characterisation was superb, and I think it's wrong to say he's a 'bad singer'. I do think a bit more vocal coaching and direction to focus the musicality he clearly has into characterisation and story-progression probably would have got him a Best Supporting Actor nomination, though. In choosing to sing more than act during his big numbers, we're unfortunately left to focus on his voice, which isn't what we should be doing in a musical.