Trailer Trashin’: Les Miserables Lets Us Hear the People Sing

With so many people going to the movies during the summer, it’s a great time for the studios to start putting out trailers for their big fall and winter films, in order to start building awareness. Such is the case with the subject of this week’s Trailer Trashin’ column, the first teaser for the long-awaited movie adaptation of the award-winning musical Les Misérables.

Premise: Former prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) tries to create a new life for himself while avoiding the grasp of police Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). The pursuit consumes the lives of both men, and after two decades on the run, Valjean finds himself in the midst of the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris.

My take: For a number of years now, I’ve been a big fan of the musical Les Misérables (it’s pronounced “lay miz-er-ab,” in case any of you don’t know). And like many fans, I wondered if the long-rumored movie adaptation would ever emerge from the depths of development hell. When it was announced in March 2011 that Tom Hooper, director of The King’s Speech (2010) would be tackling it as his next project, I started to get excited. And now the first teaser has been released, and it looks like the film could live up to its potential. For the benefit of everyone who isn’t familiar with the story, either from the musical or the original novel, I’ll do my best to avoid going into too many spoilers here.

Hooper and company have put together a really stellar cast. Obviously, the most featured player in this teaser is Anne Hathaway as Fantine, the factory worker-turned-prostitute. Hathaway is a fantastic actress, I think she’s an excellent choice for this role, and I can’t wait to see her portray such a tragic character. Also prominently seen is Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, the real protagonist of the story. I have to say I love the huge beard that Jackman is sporting in the scenes where he’s in prison and after being released. We get a few quick looks at Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert, the main antagonist. While some have expressed doubts about Crowe, I think he’s actor enough to pull off the necessary authority and menace. Also fleetingly seen are Isabelle Allen and Amanda Seyfried as, respectively, the child and grown-up versions of Cossette, Fantine’s illegitimate daughter. Seyfried is a talented actress and Allen looks appropriately cute and endearing, but having a blonde Cossette and a brunette Fantine does strain my suspension of disbelief a little bit – but that’s just me nitpicking. There’s a quick glimpse of Eddie Redmayne as Marius, Cossette’s love interest, but not enough to divine anything about how he’ll play the character. We also get a brief look at relative newcomer Samantha Barks as Eponine, the other young female lead. Barks previously played the same character in the 2010-2011 London production of Les Misérables, as well as in the show’s 25th Anniversary Concert, so it’s nice that they brought her back for the film version.The people who didn’t show up here that I was hoping to see are Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thénardiers, a husband-and-wife pair of thieving innkeepers who are the closest thing to real villains in this story. Of course, this was just the first teaser, so I’m sure we’ll get a look at dear old Mr. and Mrs. T soon enough.

The approach that the filmmakers are taking to recording the songs is also worth talking about. As far as I understand, what they’re doing is using the actual audio of the actors singing on set, rather than replacing it with audio recorded later in a studio. When I first heard that this was the approach Tom Hooper was taking, I wasn’t sure what I thought of it, because the paranoid part of me felt that it could so easily be screwed up. But what I heard in this teaser has put my mind at ease. Hathaway’s singing of “I Dreamed a Dream” here is so raw and powerful that, no joke, it actually gave me goosebumps the first time I watched this teaser. I look forward to the future trailers showcasing more of the songs – personally, I’d like to hear “Master of the House,” “Look Down,” “The Confrontation,” or “Stars.”

I honestly can’t recall another time when I’ve been this excited for a “prestige” movie. I really liked The King’s Speech, and it looks like Tom Hooper and company are going to give us another great film. With a great cast and some incredible songs, it looks like Les Misérables could be both a really good film and a worthy adaptation of one of the greatest stage musicals ever. Between this, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Django Unchained, it looks like it’s going to be a great holiday season for movie lovers.

ANTICIPATION: Grab your torches and French flags, this looks like it’s going to rock!

Release Date: December 14th, 2012

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Tveit, Isabelle Allen, Daniel Huttlestone, and Colm Wilkinson
Director: Tom Hooper
Writers: William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer