I Had A Dream This Movie Would Be...
Dec. 29th, 2012 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Over the last few days, I have seen a number of people talking about how much they loved the Les Misérables movie. And all I can think is, "Did we see the same movie here?"
And the truth is, no, we didn't. We didn't see the same movie at all.
It's like with books, what the writer writes is only half of the equation. The other half is what the reader reads. And they aren't necessarily the same thing. The same goes for the audience watching a movie. Things may be less up for interpretation, depending on the movie, but what the viewer sees is subject to their own prejudices and expectations and whatnot.
Maybe that's the problem. Maybe that's why I hated it.
I wanted so much from this movie. You need only look at my user name to get an idea of how much this story, this musical, means to me. It was the first Broadway show I ever saw... or at least the first one I saw that was worth seeing. I decided to go to college for theater because of this musical. It has been a part of my life, a part of who I am, since I was 15 years old. I wanted to love it.
I avoided reading too much about it ahead of time, because I didn't want to have my impressions tainted. I did know that they had moved some of the songs around, and I figured that as long as they did it well, it shouldn't be a problem. A little jarring for someone who knows almost the entire libretto by heart, but I was confident I would be able to move past it.
I wasn't. The first time they changed the words, when Javert was singing something about an itinerary, I started flailing. Because I didn't know why they were changing the words. It didn't make sense to me. It didn't seem to serve any purpose.
I tried to relax. I tried to move past it... but I couldn't. Not when things kept being changed for no reason. And not when the performances of the actors that I'd had such high hopes for felt weak. Hugh Jackman has a theater background, but it felt like he brought none of that to the screen. And that's what I wanted. Yes, you need to tone things down somewhat for the screen, because you can do closeups and whatnot, but these characters are archetypes. Valjean is more than just Valjean. Javert is more than just Javert.
I didn't feel that. I didn't feel much of anything at all. And that killed me. I'm used to being in tears for most of the second act, but that just didn't happen. I feel as if they cut a lot of the stuff with the students, limiting the impact that their deaths had. The only time I cried was during "A Little Fall of Rain" and even half of that was cut. But I couldn't not cry, because the only thing that I truly enjoyed about the movie (Samantha Barks as Eponine, I loved her to pieces) was going away and the movie wasn't nearly over.
There were moments that I liked (anything where Eponine was involved, for example – and how much do I love that they gave her her book death?). There were things that they got right. I recognized Grantaire taking his place at Enjolras's side at the end from the books, but I think if you hadn't actually read the book you would have absolutely no idea of the significance of that, because the movie completely erased the animosity between the two of them that is there in the stage version when you don't cut out half of it, but then there was also the nod to one of the most iconic images from the show – Enjolras and the flag – so that bit pleased me.
I was just so disappointed by the whole thing that by the end I was wishing that they had cast Taylor Swift as Eponine and spared me ever going to see it. I've moved past that a bit, but... it wasn't the movie I wanted. It will never be the movie I wanted. Maybe when it comes out on DVD I'll be able to rewatch it and judge it on its own merits, but I suspect that even then, knowing what I'm getting is not the stage musical that I love, I will walk away heartbroken, and not just because everyone dies.