No afterlife for Russel Crowe: Les Miserables

So, I've just come back from seeing Les Miserables for a second time, and whilst walking back, singing 'Can you hear the people sing?', I had a startling relevation: had I not seen the stage musical many a time, had I not in fact committed every single detail of it to memory like some horrid stalker, I think that it would probably have been one of my favourite films of all time.

The acting is undeniably incredible: Anne Hathaway almost made me cry, twice now. It's a performance which you couldn't give in a theatre, because no one would be able to hear you. On film, it's intoxicating, watching a woman's face, projected 30 foot large, spiral into grief and noticing every single flicker of emotion. Hugh Jackman is Jean Val Jean through and through- he is utterly hateful at the beginning, and entirely repentant by the end, finding time to be heroic, clingy and preachy in the middle. Even Russel Crowe, by far the film's weakest element, has genuine hate in his eyes when he looks on Jackman- one wonders if he isn't a little pissed he is no longer the most eminent Aussie on the block.

The staging is suitably epic, including mountain tops, cavernous ships and life-size porcelain elephants. When I first saw the film, I remarked that it seemed the students had a barricade about six feet in length and had blocked off only the street where they all lived, which seemed rather self-defeating, and not worth the army's trouble. Upon rewatching, it's a much grander affair: the scene where the furniture rains down from the sky is mesmerising, and the homespun nature of the blockade didn't diminish the splendour, but enhanced it (I don't know why this is only on the second viewing, I knew perfectly well the story and themes going in the first time). Also, full marks for the sewer scene, which makes a point of never forgetting what a sewer is: I always got confused watching films as a child when characters would crawl through sewers, and just seemed to slosh through water, never once needing to retch from the stench.

And, of course, the music is Rousing. It stirs something primal in human beings- the audience with whom I saw Les Mis applauded both times, and it's because the end song just demands it. (As does, sidebar, One Day More, and I have, both times, delivered a solitary sitting ovation to that song.) The music gets into your blood and takes over your heart beat: it becomes the pulse by which you live your life. It is the universal metronome which we all ignore because we're so used to it, but rendered so presently that we cannot help but sit up and pay attention.
And this is where the film is caught short, because that music is simply better live. As is most music. To hear Hathaway sob through 'I dreamed a dream' is a unique joy, but it simply cannot beat hearing a chorus of unknowns- really, almost any chorus of unknowns- mumble through 'do you hear the people sing', and especially its reprise, a few feet away on the local am-dram stage because that music is just so all-encompassing, and being in the same room as it is just exquisite. Am I gushing? I don't care. That is some of the best music ever composed- and it comes with stirring lyrics! Who could ask for anything more?
To be in the same space as someone putting their all into that score (and it is a score which, like any great schoolteacher, demands one's all) is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I don't doubt for one moment that the entire cast of Les Mis the movie were giving it their utmost, and it does show, honest to God it does, but unless they're going to tour around the world and give us all a personal viewing to their performance, their film will always play second fiddle to any live showing of this musical.

As I said, had I not known the stage show previously, I would have been swept up in Les Mis mania and even now be using even more superlative language to try and force the world to go and see it. But sadly, it lives in a shadow- a huge shadow, yes, and one which allows a lot of room for growth, but a shadow nonetheless.
Nice try, Tom. Better luck next time.

P.S. Kate Fleetwood delivers a stellar performance as 'Random Factory Bitch'- I had never previously heard of her, and, indeed, had to look her up on IMDB; she just infused 'At the end of the day' with so much malice.

I just wish there were an Oscar for Best Actor/Actress in an Utterly Minor Role. Keep it up, Kate.