"Farewell, Courgette -"
"-No. Cosette!"
The overblown 80s stage musical becomes, well, an overblown 2010s film musical. The film is carried along by the sheer weight of strong performances: Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Anne Hathaway as the doomed Fantine are stellar and possibly role-defining, and even most subsidiary characters are given real strength by well-chosen players, such as Samantha Barks as a worthy Eponine and Eddie Redmayne with a first-rate performance as Marius. Russell Crowe occasionally lacks the backbone in his vocal delivery for the character but is otherwise fine, and Amanda Seyfried does her best with the irritating older Cosette. The decision to present the big solos as largely one-take works well, but Paris for the most part does feel (and look) surprisingly stage-bound, with Hopper's direction at times making Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! movie look accomplished. The score remains schmaltzy, repetitive and unadventurous, but here all the highlights are delivered with aplomb. You will have to like musicals to enjoy this film, but this movie certainly does justice to one of theatre's most popular modern hits, and the rousing (if 'miserable'!) finale brought a round of applause from the cinema audience.
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