LES MISERABLES....A TESTAMENT TO HOPE

Please don't expect a bipartisan review of LES MISERABLES from me. First, I remember taking a group of Humanities students to see The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables with their original casts on Broadway. As they left Phantom, they were gushing with praise for the romantic story, music, and special effects (oh, that chandelier!). The next night, as Les Miz ended, not only the girls but also several football players trailed out of the theater in tears, most unable to express how they felt about the emotionally draining/elating closing. I was right there with them, sobbing away.

So when I read David Edelstein's vicious attack on Tom Hooper's film version of this epic theater piece, I thought I was living in a parallel universe, one which is moved by epic story-telling, both intimate and grand music, and one of the greatest musical casts since SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. But enough faint praise. Let's get down to specifics. Director Hooper  (Oscar, THE KING'S SPEECH) has a grand vision that lifts the stagebound musical into a more realistic, though often stylized, world. Instead of seeing characters in spotlights, we see them in interlocking cuts expressing their sentiments both to other cast members and to the audience. This is one of the great advantages of film. The opening sequence masterfully introduces Jean Val-Jean (Hugh Jackman in great acting and singing form) as he and fellow convicts attempt to lug a giant ship ashore. The themes of injustice to the poor and the hope for atonement and regeneration dominate the film in both song and sight. In an early scene the workers and the poor sing:

              At the end of the day you're another day older
             And that's all you can say for the life of the poor
                               It's a struggle, it's a war
                And there's nothing that anyone's giving
               One more day standing about, what is it for?
                               One day less to be living.

Director Hooper pans across the singers, forcing us to look at desperate, misshapen, and hopeless faces and not avoid them as we often avoid the poor we see in our own experience. Moments later we meet a prime example of grinding poverty, Fantine, played and sung with ferocious intensity by Anne Hathaway. Her show-stopping song "I Dreamed a Dream," in which she recalls her descent into hopelessness is the film's highlight. Fantine dies in the arms of Jean Val-Jean, spurring several plots forward. He saves and adopts Fantine's daughter Cosette, who grows into the lovely and innocent Amanda Seyfried. Jean Val-Jean is now hiding in plain sight and trying to avoid capture from his nemesis Javert (Russell Crowe, dramatically powerful, vocally tenuous at best). All of this is played against the failed Revolution of 1832  . Marius, played and sung beautifully by Eddie Tremayne, has fallen in love with Cosette, and she with him, while the hapless Eponine (Samantha Banks, the best and most professional voice in the film) looks on longingly. One of the best numbers in the film is their impassioned trio "A Heart full of Love," which is only one of the many numbers inspired by operatic classics.

The film's great climax comes as the students build a barricade out of furniture and empty coffins while singing "Do you Hear the People Sing?". This was a sensation on Broadway, but in the film it opens up to the streets of Paris, as people throw their furniture from the windows above to show their solidarity. "Do You Hear the People Sing? is recalled at the end of the film as Jean Val-Jean is called to Heaven. Both scenes are unabashedly emotional, and it takes a hard heart not to react. I feel the same way about the entire film. LES MISERABLES sweeps its viewers through a revolution and a multitude of love stories, betrayals, and deaths. Whether small or large, director Hooper infuses each scene with passion and artistry. But let's not forget what really makes LES MISERABLES a classic. It's the music. One of the best scores in musical theater history, LES MISERABLES was written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg and spans musical genres from farce ("Master of the House," in which Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen clown it up in fine style) to love songs to stirring patriotic anthems. Unlike some film adaptations, LES MISERABLES doesn't underplay the music and the singing. The actors all did their own singing and were recorded on film and soundtrack, unlike the dubbing usually done in films like CHICAGO. The effect is one of immediacy and realism in the most unreal of movie genres...the Musical.

BACK TO MIDDLE EARTH

Peter Jackson, whose epic trilogy THE LORD OF THE RINGS, became one of the most successful franchises in movie history, has returned to J.R.R. Tolkien's fabled Middle Earth, this time to tell the prequel to LOTR. Fortunately, he has more success than George Lucas did with his clunky prequels to the original STAR WARS series.  THE HOBBIT (1937) is a relatively short and simple book about dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit on a quest for gold. It would have made one good film, but Jackson has decided to go the trilogy route again. Whether for profit or for story-telling possiblities remains to be seen.

Jackson's first installment of THE HOBBIT is a long, sometimes over-stuffed but energetic adventure that presses the major themes of most fantasy stories for young people: good battling evil against almost impossible odds and the process of the protagonist accepting his role in that battle. Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins, a home-body Hobbit who leaves his comfort zone to follow a ragged band of dwarves and their psychic leader the itinerant wizard Gandalf in a quest for the gold stolen by the dragon Smaug. Their journey is filled with nasty Orcs, ghastly dwarf-eating trolls, and worst of all, carnivorous goblins. Some of the battles, especially with the Orcs, seem overly repetitive. How many Orc heads do we need thrown in our faces in ever-sharpening 3-D technology? And why does it take 40 minutes for Bilbo and the gang to leave the shire in the first place?

Nevertheless, there are wonderful moments in THE HOBBIT. One of the best is Bilbo's extended confrontation with the younger version of Gollum we know from LOTR.  Played again with a mixture of uncanny grace and repulsiveness, Gollum is one of the great film characters in film history, and Andy Serkis, who voiced him and motion-captured him deserves an Oscar nod. Bilbo and Gollum play an amusing game of riddles, with Bilbo's life on the line. When Gollum loses the Ring the entire plot of Lord of the Rings is set in motion. The second scene that stands out is both humorous and stomach-churning. The hellish Goblin kingdom in underground caverns is a marvel of intricate crosswalks, ladders and crannies all leading to the grossly obese King of the Goblins, who cracks jokes as he plans his next snack. And there is a beautiful scene of the dwarves' aerial rescue by magnificent eagles.

Peter Jackson may not have matched his Oscar-winning triumph THE RETURN OF THE KING, but he has created a rousing and often beautiful entertainment in THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY.

LET IT FLOW

Tis the season when emotions rise, for better or worse. In many cases they are stirred by the media. Last Sunday night we watched the 60 MINUTES interview with Hugh Jackman, who plays Jean-Val Jean in the film version of the musical LES MISERABLES. It was only a 20 minute interview, but I found my tear ducts warming up every time the musical score boomed and Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and others belted out their songs with emotional bravaura. I should invest in Kleenex stock. The film is going to be an emotional avalanche, and I can't wait!

Then, Betsy and I were watching a repeat of Episode 2 of the second season of DOWNTON ABBEY, that toney Brit import on Public Television (Yes, I sent in my pledge) that has captivated American Anglophiles and soap opera fans alike. The scene that caught us off guard involved the Grantham family dealing with bad news with the proper stiff upper lip. They have learned that Matthew Crawley has gone missing behind German lines. But the show must go on; i.e, the musicale for recovering soldiers is in full swing. Sisters Lady Mary (Matthew's true love) and Lady Edith are soldiering through "If You Were the Only Girl in the World," and suddenly the missing Matthew appears. The song, the look on Lady Mary's face, the entire package brought me to tears. I turned to Betsy, and she was snuffling as well. More stock in Kleenex.

So should we do the "amurican" thing and stifle our tears? I think not. At this season of the year, at this juncture of our fractured world, maybe a few heartfelt tears, elicited by popular but worthy dramatic works, can be healthy and even cathartic for us all.  MERRY CHRISTMAS.

MERRY DVD CHRISTMAS LIST

Want to give your movie-loving relative or friend a special treat for Christmas? Try one of these treasures:

NOTORIOUS, 1946. Hitchcock's best film from the 1940's features brilliant direction, beautifully designed black and white photography, and, of course, the stars. Cary Grant is a suave U.S. agent who enlists Ingrid Bergman, the daughter of a traitor and a "notorious" party girl, to spy on Nazi-sympathizers in Rio just after WWII. As he trains her, they fall madly in love. Her job forces her to marry wealthy industrialist Claude Rains and leads her into life-threatening danger. The famous key sequence that leads to deadly discoveries is the highlight of this suspense classic.

BLACK NARCISSUS, 1947 . Directed by Michael Powell and Emereck Pressburger, this fever-pitched drama about English nuns alone in a mountainous northern Indian province, provides Deborah Kerr one of her greatest roles. As Sister Clodagh, Kerr must control not only her high-strung sisters but also her own conflict between her faith and her simmering desire for a rough adventurer. This is a role she would enlarge on in HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON, 1957.   The stunning color photography by Jack Cardiff won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and Kerr won the New York Critics Award for Best Actress. Kerr would be nominated for 6 Best Actress awards, but BLACK NARCISSUS remains her finest performance.

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, 1944. Vincente Minnelli's gingerbread dream of America in 1904 as the World's Fair approached starred Judy Garland in one of her signature roles, Esther Smith, an idealistic, romantic girl who falls in love with "The Boy Next Store." This rose-colored valentine to Americana featured Garland belting "The Trolley Song" and giving "Have Yourself a Merry, Little Christmas" its most tremulous, personal interpretation. Filmed in MGM's vivid storybook colors, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS remains one of the great musicals of all time.

BEST IN SHOW, 2000. One of the funniest satires ever made, this Christopher Guest-directed farce takes a close and scathing look at the dog show buisness. The cast of clueless owners includes ventriloquist and good ole boy (director Guest) and his bloodhound Hubert; a tacky but lovable couple (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara), who seem to run into her former conquests at every turn, and their Norwich Terrier Winky; an obnoxious yuppie couple  (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock), who personify status-climbing, and their neurotic Weimaraner; Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge), a bosomy blonde based on Anna Nicole Smith),  her barely alive sugar daddy, her standard Poodle Rhapsody in White, and her trainer Christie Cummings (Jane Lynch); and a campy gay couple played by John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean. It's amazing how many of these folks can be seen when you watch the annual Westminister Dog Show.

Ang Lee, a Hungry Tiger, and 3-D

Having achieved artistic and financial success in surprisingly different genres, the Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee has once again pulled off the nearly impossible. His first English speaking film SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, 1995, was a delightful adaptation that balanced the spirit and mirth of Jane Austen with a deeper, almost melancholy sensitivity and was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning one for Emma Thompson's Best Adapted Screenplay.

In 1999 Lee created an exotic world unfamiliar to most Americans in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, an epic martial arts epic that lifted the genre into both art and popular culture. His biggest gamble was using the Chinese language, instead of English. His risk paid off with an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and three Oscars in the technical categories.

But perhaps his greatest gamble was 2005's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, an unprecedented and frank look at an abiding love between two macho cowboys. Lee won the Oscar for Best Director and the film was nominated for eight more. The performances, especially those of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall, were heart-rending and sincere, mostly due to Lee's direction.

THE LIFE OF PI, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel, proved to be Ang Lee's greatest challenge. To tell a story where most of the action is placed on the high seas with only a boy and a hungry tiger seemed daunting, but Lee upped the stakes by using 3-D. Only a few films have used the process seriously, most notably AVATAR. Following the novel's structure, Lee uses a frame work where the middle-aged Pi tells the story of his strange past. When he was a child, Pi  and his family owned a zoo in India. Under political pressure, they decided to move to Canada with their animals. Early in the voyage a violent storm sinks the ship and only Pi escapes; that is, only Pi, a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a voracious tiger named Richard Parker, who quickly dispenses with the other animals.

So the great heart of LIFE OF PI is the struggle between a 16 year old boy and a hungry tiger together on a raft under every possible weather condition. Director Lee embraces this challenge with 3-D, not the kind that hurls objects at viewers but one that pulls them into the scene so that they feel as though they are on that raft. This dynamic involvement lifts this story to a higher level. The audience not only sees a sea filled with illuminated jelly fish shimmering in a heavenly aura but they feel surrounded by them. A similar feeling occurs when a whale rises close to the raft at night. Lee maintains an incredible level of tension between boy and tiger while suffusing the screen with beauty. One theme is that Pi manages to survive by keeping the tiger alive. This gives him purpose. Part of his drive to stay alive comes from his deeply felt religious beliefs in...Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity. Ang Lee makes all this and more believable and even transformative. See LIFE OF PI in a theater in 3-D for its full impact.

New to DVD...Some good, Some rancid

There are four new films out on dvd this month, all of which won critical approval. But, as my grandson reminds me, what do we critics know?

1. MOONLIGHT KINGDOM, directed by that master of quirky Wes Anderson (RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS), presents a Romeo and Juliet story where off-beat tweens fall in love and bring their whole island home into panic and eventual harmony. The style of the film is detailed and beautifully but artificially colored, as in a fairy tale. The cast includes newcomers as the tweens and a bevy of Anderson types: Bruce Willis as a sensitive cop, Bill Murray as a detached and often drunk dad, and Ed Norton as an inept but charming scout master who finally saves the day. If you liked films like RUSHMORE, this should be a treat.

2. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, directed by Lauren Greenfield, is a documentary about David A. Siegal and his wife who aspire to build their own palace based on Louis IV's Versailles. Siegal's fortune was based on luxury time-share resorts. When the filming began, the Siegals were building the largest mansion in America near Orlando, Florida. Jackie Siegal tours us through her mansion and her life, both of which are gaudy and bigger than life. As we watch we feel like doing the superiority dance. How can these people live this corruption of the American dream? How can they have such poor taste? You really have to see the film to believe the excess. Yet as the dream turns sour after the financial crash, we actually feel some sympathy for these folks, especially the children. But, not that much!

ON THE OTHER HAND....

1. TAKE THIS WALTZ, directed by Sarah Polley, stars the engaging Michelle Williams as a young Canadian wife who loves her sweet husband, an appealing Seth Rogen, but is attracted to a free spirited and sexy man who just happens to live across the street. This film is vapid and filled with longing looks and fuzzy, sunlit photography that even the Hallmark Channel seems zippy in comparison.

2. MY SISTER'S SISTER, directed by Lynn Shelton, is another relationship story that falters quickly. Jack(Mark Duplass), who is still grieving his brother's death, takes a quick vacation offered by his platonic friend Iris (Emily Blunt). He thinks he will be alone but discovers Iris's sister Hannah (Rosemary de Witt) has arrived. As they get drunk together, their animosity turns into into lust. The next morning Iris arrives and Jack and Hannah desperately try to keep their tryst a secret. That's the movie, folks, except for one annoying factor....the language. I stopped counting the f words at 50, and this in the first half hour. The plot is thin, the wit is witless, and the language is blue to black.

My opinion on these last two is not shared by many. Rolling Stone loved MY SISTER'S SISTER, and NPR was high on both. Okay, I'm a fuddy-duddy, but I like stories with a plot and a purpose and dialogue that is meaningful, witty, and heartfelt. These two just don't measure up.

Lincoln Meets Spielberg

Throughout his storied career, Steven Spielberg has thrilled us with shark attacks, alien encounters, and adventurers like Indiana Jones. He has also presented great moments in history to more people than any teacher or text book. Of course, his films like SCHINDLER'S LIST, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and MUNICH are his interpretations of history. His extraordinary talent as a director of action, emotional acting, and inspiring propaganda has few matches in film history. Yet there are detractors who fault Spielberg for his sentimentality (E.T., HOOK) and his occasional lapses into populism (the JURASSIC PARK series).

In his new film LINCOLN, Spielberg tackles one of the most legendary and loved figures in American history. I had qualms about how the great man would be portrayed by Spielberg. In  the film's first sequence, Lincoln is shown in an aura of shadowy lighting talking with young white and black soldiers in the field. They revere the great man and quote the Gettysburg address, as John Williams' worshipful music lifts to a crescendo.  Too much? Perhaps, but it's pure Spielberg, and it works. This sequence sets up the rest of the film as Lincoln attempts to live up to the expectations of these soldiers, slaves, and all who support the Union.

So, is LINCOLN a review of the president's last days before his assassination with a series of frozen tableaux of his achievements?  Not at all.  Instead Spielberg and his screen writer Tony Kushner (ANGELS IN AMERICA) concentrate on the passing of the 13th Amendment which would outlaw slavery for all time in America. Director and writer tread that fine line between suspense and didacticism, a line most history teachers know well. And they succeed beyond our expectations. A bevy of great actors power the furious debate in the House of Representatives. David Strathairn, who masterfully portrayed Edward R. Murrow in GOOD LUCK, AND GOOD NIGHT, is Secretary of State William Seward, a brilliant politician and true friend and advisor to Lincoln. Sally Field is Mary Lincoln and gives the part a mixture of spite and loving devotion.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's oldest son, James Spader as a Republican "activist," and the venerable Hal Holbrook as a party leader all give first-rate performances. But Tommy Lee Jones as radical Thaddeus Stevens lifts the debate in the House to hilarious levels with his blunt but truthful characterizations of his Democrat opponents.

But the film's impact rests on the shoulders of Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, and he gives the part a subtle mixture of homespun wit, humility, anger, and political savvy.  What makes this version of the Lincoln legend so relevant to our congressional quagmire today? This film is about politics, good, bad, and ugly, and Abe Lincoln is right in the middle of the fight. He buys votes, hires amoral lobbyists, and persuades defeated incumbents with job appointments. But his goal is one of the greatest in American history, freedom from slavery.

Spielberg, Kushner, and Day-Lewis and their associates have created a document of living history that calls its viewers to many levels--suspense, character, and a love of history. Very few films can claim the like.