I thought I would
miss this movie before I left Seoul for my Christmas vacation.
On December 18, the
day before the Korean presidential elections, I claimed my free movie ticket at
CGV Yongsan to watch Les Miserables the next day. Since the 9AM first screening
was too early for me, I asked the CGV ticket girl to save me a seat at the
10:50AM screening.
The next day, I
thought I was late. I got into the cinema at 11AM and found a guy sitting on
M14, my seat. Thinking that he must
have switched from another seat, I whispered to him that he was sitting on
mine. We couldn’t understand each other, so I went out and asked for help from
an attendant at the lobby. She examined my ticket and told me my ticket was for
today all right, but at….10:50….PM! Waaaah! Not only did I go into the wrong screening, I
almost kicked out a moviegoer from his
own seat! Ha-ha-ha! Soh-reee!
(Roaming around I-Park Mall to kill time)
Back to the
attendant. I told her my flight out of Korea was at 9:30PM and I definitely
wouldn’t be able to stay any longer even if they let me sing along with Hugh
Jackman at the 10:50PM screening. But with the help of her manager, they
changed my ticket to the 12PM screening. Wheew!
That was close. I didn’t see that
mistake coming! No wonder the audience
was already so quiet and still when I got into that screening. They were
already in the middle of the movie! Ha-ha-ha! (Lesson: make sure nothing is lost in
translation when buying a movie ticket in Korea!).
(Bulgogi lunch!)
After disaster was
averted, I went around I-Park Mall to
kill time before I grabbed a bulgogi lunch and a drink before the 12PM movie.
* * * * *
Now, on to the
movie.
Even on the first
five minutes of the film, I immediately noticed that Russel Crowe was a
miscast. His singing sounded nasal and funny, ‘ Maximus Decimus Meridius’
(his character in Gladiator) was written all over his forehead, and it
seemed he had trouble squeezing into Javert’s
uniform. A few more baguettes with French cheese and wine, and he would have
had Napoleon Bonaparte’s waistline. I could easily name a couple of Hollywood
actors who could have played (and sung) Javert.
And with a French twang to boot!
And even without the
songs and the gorgeous performances of Hugh
Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, was a novel with stories that were easy to
like and relate to:
- a convict who violated his parole and ran for an elective office (I know a few from Philippine politics. Ha-ha-ha!);
- a single mom struggling to raise a child, who then was raised by a single dad (very reality TV);
- a girl who has crush on a guy who has a crush on another girl (very tele-novela),
- a crusade which failed because they didn’t have enough supporters-slash-‘Likers’ (very Facebook!).
And let’s include the
notorious couple who runs an inn, which could have been easily featured at Gordon Ramsay’s TV show, Hotel
Hell, and Fantine’s workplace full of backstabbing
colleagues (I actually know a few!
Ha-ha-ha!) and a supervisor who could have been found guilty of sexual
harassment at any labor court.
I was thinking, Les Miserables, without the singing and
songs, is the 19th century version of ‘The Fugitive’ (Harrison Ford
and Tommy Lee Jones) and ‘Catch Me If
You Can’ (Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom
Hanks).
Though Monsieur Hugo
wrote his novel in 1862, these stories are very 21st century still.
No wonder the audience around me that day at the cinema were sniffling and
wiping their eyes with tissue. They identified themselves with those
characters. And me? My tummy was full
with my bulgogi lunch from the E-Mart food court and I was sipping green tea
latte from Angel-In-Us during the
movie. I was fine. Ha-ha-ha!
Even before the
closing credits rolled up the screen, I thought Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Eddie
Redmayne deserved Oscar nominations.
I initially didn’t
recognize Huge Jackman on the first
scene. He was so emaciated and transformed that I didn’t know Wolverine was down there weight-training
with the rest of the convicts using those huge ropes, while singing ‘Look Down’ as the lyrics synchronized
with the cadence of a very wet workout. I was especially impressed with the way
he carried the movie all throughout; this time without the help of any X-Men or
his mutant powers. The only things he needed were his voice and his ability to convince
us that, while Jean Valjean was a
sentenced convict, one can change for better life: first, by stealing expensive candelabras. Ha-ha-ha!
Of course, with the intention of
returning them later.
Seriously, his
singing was just superb with his voice firm and notes spot-on. And if there was
dancing on his scenes, Jean Valjean would have another career
other than being mayor and the Adoptive Father of
the Year.
Anne Hathaway, who admitted she didn’t have the voice for a real on-stage musicale,
made us believe she was indeed an abused single-mom and factory worker, who could still sing a few bars while on her deathbed and sporting really short hair.
This was far from her other roles as a princess and a superhero in a tight
leather costume. I bet she will win a best supporting Oscar for this role. Catherine
Zeta-Jones won the best support actress Oscar after doing splits in prison
while singing in another musicale, Chicago.
Hathaway had her teeth pulled, her hair sold and was abandoned by her
boyfriend after she got pregnant. What
do you think?
While the rest of
those youngsters at the barricades were equally good, Eddie Redmayne’s peformance, as Marius,
could not be ignored. Although I am not sure whether he was a good shooter as
there was no body count on how many French soldiers he was able to kill while
firing from a pile of tables, sofas and chairs (isn’t French furniture expensive?), his portrayal of an ‘heredero’ (heir), who’s trying to keep
a low profile as a revolutionary, stood out.
Redmayne’s own
moment came when he sang ‘Empty Chairs and Empty Tables’ on an abandoned
tavern, complete with real tears flowing down his cheeks. That, to me, was a
performance difficult to match. But in some bars in Seoul, once in a while,
you’d encounter some drunk men singing.
Although the water flowing down won’t be tears from the eyes. Ha-ha-ha!
The other actors
like Amanda Seyfried (the adult Cossette, a blonde) and Samantha Banks (the
adult Eponine, a brunette) were good as well, but they were just pretty icing at
the barricades. Banks was too pretty to be Eponine (she played this role at West
End), which left me wondering, how could Marius
ignore her pretty face when he was with her all the time? Maybe he preferred blondes, or maybe he just
wanted to marry a mayor’s daughter in preparation for a bright, political
career. But had he known Seyfried’s dad in Red Riding Hood was a werewolf, he
would have changed his mind.
And the other
couple, the Thenardiers, was off. Sacha
Baron Cohen seemed drab and corny, and
Helena Bonham Carter, maybe because of her partner, seemed uninspired. While partnering
with Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street, another musicale, she was in her elements. Unfortunately this time,
she’s paired with Baron Cohen, who’s
way below Depp’s league. They should have cast another wicked couple.
At the end of
two-and-a-half hours, I wasn’t burping anymore from my bulgogi lunch. I was
singing at the barricades. Ha-ha-ha! And the audience around me? Well, most of
them were busy wiping their tears and blowing their noses for the last time.
Leaving the CGV cinema and rushing home to catch a flight at Incheon
International Airport, I was totally impressed with the whole movie. Even if
you cast talented unknowns for those big roles, the songs and the lyrics alone
would have caused my neighbors to cry.
And as my Cebu
Pacific flight that night did not have any in-flight entertainment, watching Les Miserables that same day was, for
me, the best in-flight movie ever.
