My holiday movie bender ended yesterday with a viewing of Les Miserables, a classic story by Victor Hugo published in 1862 and made into a theatrical musical in the 80’s that’s earned a bazillion bucks on stages worldwide. Amazingly, it took Hollywood until now to make the blockbuster musical into a movie.
So, here’s the deal. Fine acting, great costumes, beautiful cinematography, art direction and pretty good singing. But unfortunately, the songs themselves aren’t terribly catchy. A musical should be about music. This production has about three songs with hooks, making the 157 minute running time feel like almost three hours of incessant warbling.
West Side Story this ain’t.
Yeah, yeah, some people are crazy for this show. I never saw a stage production but I imagine the attraction is to the theatrics and not the music. This score is skinny, babes. Jean Valjean would have been better served to steal some catchier tunes.
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