MovieRob’s Birthday Bash of Favorites 2021 (#14 of 48) – Les Miserables (2012) – Encore Review 4

January is my birthday month, so I decided that I would try and do something quite unique and special for this milestone in my life. I will be turning 47, so I decided to watch 48 (47+1 for good luck) of my all time favorite movies in a random order over the course of this month. I have reviewed every one of these films already, but I will now give new perspectives on them all. Every one of these films received a 10/10 scoring from me. Some of these reviews will contain spoilers so if you have never seen them before, I recommend that you read some of my previous reviews of the film that were spoiler free before reading on…

Hope you enjoy!

This is film # of the 48.

Let’s continue with…

Initial Viewing Memories – I have always loved this story and saw the play at least twice. I owned the soundtrack and as soon as I heard that his film version was being made, I was so happy to finally see it play out on the screen.

“But remember this, my brother. See in this some higher plan. You must use this precious silver to become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, by the passion and the blood, God has brought you out of darkness. I have bought your soul for God.” – Bishop

Number of Times Seen – 7 (15 Jan 2013, Mid-Feb 2013, 23 Oct 2013, 2 Oct 2014, 22 Nov 2016, 19 Nov 2019 and 9 Jan 2021)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – A former convict finds a way to redeem himself but must break parole in order to do so, but his actions haunt him for decades afterwards.

My Take on it – Amazing musical that works so well on screen. The songs of this film are superb and the fact that this isn’t on a stage allows them to add so much more detail to the story and characters. The cast is so powerful here and both Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are great in these roles because they add so much emotion to their performances. The film is able to develop these characters so well in such a short period of time because the music and visuals help give us such a clear understanding of all of them in a very succint way. The messages of this story are blatant here and resonate so well the entire time. There are so really emotional scenes that are mixed together with some comical ones in order to really get their point across over and over. This is such a poignant film and was deservingly nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars even though it failed to win. One of the best musicals put to the screen IMHO. Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Colm Wilkinson, who plays the Bishop who covers for Jean Valjean’s thievery, is the original Jean Valjean from the original English language Les Misérables stage productions, in both London (1985) and on Broadway (1987). He has also reprised the part in several of the concert versions. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)