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LES MISERABLES Send This Review to a Friend
Do we really need yet another version of LES MISERABLES?Judging by Danish director Billie August's latest interpretation, why not? The techniques of filming an epic 19th century yarn with modern know-how serve Victor Hugo's great novel well. Sure, film buffs who prize the 1935 classic version may still have Fredric March as Jean Valjean and Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert in mind, but the new "Les Miserables" gives us charismatic Liam Neeson in a vigorous, affecting performance as Valjean and Geoffrey Rush, so memorable as the mentally troubled concert pianist in "Shine," imbues Javert with a fierce obsession in his quest to expose Valjean and return him to prison.
The plot is well known. Valjean, condemned to a long prison sentence for stealing bread to survive, is still regarded as a convict even after he is freed, but makes a new life for himself and becomes economically successful and mayor of a town in which he finds respect. Uma Thurman gives a poignant performance as Fantine, the fatally-ill, downtrodden woman. Valjean fulfils his promise to look after her young daughter Cosette, who, on growing up, falls in love with the revolutionary Marius. Valjean, relentlessly pursued by Javert, reveals his identity rather than see an innocent man sent to prison.
The themes surging through the intense drama involve injustice, love, morality and the need to temper the law with humanity. This version handles them with contemporary sophistication instead of the overwrought style that worked in the 1930s, but weakens when the story of Cosette and Marius becomes key. Claire Danes disappoints as Cosette. She looks out of place in the 1800s, conveys more Valley Girl petulance than Parisian passion and fails to generate sympathy for her conflicted loyalties. Nor does Hans Matheson light any fires as Marius. Inexplicably, August doesn't make very much of the sequence in which Javert chases Valjean through the sewers of Paris.
That said, August's "Les Miserables," scripted by Rafael Yglesias and enhanced by convincing settings, makes Hugo's novel live again on screen as a rousing epic with gripping performances by Neeson, Rush and Thurman. Warning: This is not a version of the Broadway musical. No singing, no dancing. Just the drama of Victor Hugo's engrossing classic. A Columbia Pictures release.
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