les miserables (film critique)

Les Miserables 
(Movie based on novel by Victor Hugo and Broadway play by Boublil & Schönberg)
Director:  Tom Hooper
Starring:  Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne and Daniel Huttlestone

As background for me, so you know where I'm coming from, I grew up from pre-teen listening to the Les Miserables (Original Recording) soundtrack on our old record player. One of my most vivid memories as a child is sitting in a dark living room one evening with my siblings, listening to this record.  It was a snowy night in Seattle, and we had turned all the lights off so we could stare out through our over-sized front window at the streetlamp illuminating the snow flurries as they came down. I'm sure you all have those moments where you are so happy, and so moved, that the memory stays with you forever.  That's what Les Miserables represents to me.

When I was about 15, I saw the Broadway play when it came to Seattle at 5th Avenue, and it's still like a dream to me. I saw the play again when it came back around last year, but the set and ensemble were all different and I found myself slightly disappointed. However... not so with the new movie, starring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

Hugh Jackman starved himself for the
prison scenes as Jean Valjean -- he was
barely recognizable.

Russell Crowe's Javert had a hard
time keeping up with the strong
voices around him, unfortunately

Valjean discovers Fauntine

I was ready to be extremely cynical, given the complete let-down that the previous movie starring Claire Danes had been. But there was no need. It was moving and heartbreaking. It didn't betray my childhood memories, but instead gave me something else to hold on to. Something I can watch up-close and personal, unlike the Broadway play (where yes, I was always up in the balcony). It wouldn't have worked the same way if they hadn't filmed all the songs live -- nothing pre-recorded. You simply cannot walk out of that experience unmoved.

Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen
(who isn't much of a singer) as the Thénardiers

Cosette (all grown up) and Marius

Eponine and Gavroche
Little known fact: did you know that in the novel,
Gavroche is actually Eponine's little brother?

Enjolras

The movie was absolutely brilliant. Bravo, everyone! You've given me something to hold onto until the Broadway musical decides to come back through Seattle, and I love you for it!

Of course, it wasn't perfect and I had a few nit-picks (like a couple missing songs), but it's not even worth going into. The movie allowed me to really understand what was going on in the barricade, and visualize it in a way that the play wasn't able to facilitate. Also, Cosette and Marius, historically my least favorite characters by far, were actually moving and real to me. Eddie Redmayne's (Marius) rendition of "Empty Chairs" was the most powerful I've ever heard.

Not that I can believe that anyone could possibly need one, but just in case, here's a plot summary, found here:

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables" (translated most accurately as "The Miserable Ones") tells the tale of a released prisoner named Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. Given his new-found freedom, he violates his parole. His life is changed forever through the generosity and grace shown to him by a priest; as he learns he must redeem himself in the eyes of God. Despite becoming a respectable mayor, he is chased by Javert, a police inspector who believes solely in atonement through the Law. The law leads to frustration and death, but grace leads to a life of selflessness and hope. This game of cat vs. mouse is the spine to the epic story of Les Misérables, as Valjean encounters many impoverished characters who help him seek redemption for his sins along the way.

i'm a cyborg, but that's ok (film critique)

I'm a cyborg, but that's ok

Director:  Park Chan-wook
Starring:  Im Su-jeong, Bi (Rain)

I just finished this wonderful film for the second time.  John has begun watching Korean dramas with me recently, and I took the opportunity to throw in a Korean movie for his response, as well.  Like me, he really liked the movie.

I haven't yet seen any other movies by this director, but the experience of I'm a cyborg certainly makes me want to hunt them down. I feel this movie is a mix between a Tim Burton film, such as Edward Scissorhands, and The Princess and the Warrior, directed by Tom Tykwer.

A short plot summary, found here:

Cyborg is the story of Cha Young-goon (Lim Su-jeong), a disturbed girl from a disturbed family, who insists that she’s a cyborg. So Young-goon is admitted to an asylum, carrying with her her grandmother’s dentures, which she uses to strike up conversations with the vending machine or the hospital lights.

Young-goon’s attention soon turns to inmate Park Il-soon (Jung Ji-hoon a.k.a Rain), as he purports to be a thief capable of stealing personality traits from other inmates. Young-goon wants Il-soon to steal her sense of sympathy, so that she can do what any moral cyborg must do and kill all the “white ‘uns”, i.e: orderlies.

Of more immediate concern is that Young-goon refuses to eat, instead relying on licking batteries to provide energy. As it becomes clear that she’ll die if not treated, only Il-soon might provide the solution that escapes the doctors.

Definitely a keeper for my own collection.

lovers on the bridge (film critique)

A feminist critique of 'Lovers on the Bridge' with Juliette Binoche and Denis L----, by Martin Scorsese

This movie was a hard-core lesson in misogyny. The male lead character did all of the below: struck female lead twice, screamed at her in anger, conspired and went through a lot of trouble to keep her from getting a surgery that would save her eyesight, then lost his temper at her---when she didn’t jump into bed with him when he got out of jail---and grabbed her, throwing them both over the bridge into the water below, with obvious intent to kill them both.

Point 1. When he struck her, his first offense, she hit him back, fought him rather "girlishly" and ineffectually. He hit her again--in the very effective, "manly" way--knocking her on her ass. Then the next scene shows her tugging and pulling on him to try to get him to ‘open up to her’, and stop being so 'closed', and to ‘stop tormenting himself so’??!! Um, really?

Point 2. Next, he ran all over the city destroying the 'missing' posters of her, which told of the surgery that could save her eyesight. Better yet, he found the man who was putting up the posters and tracked him down, setting the car and all the posters inside on fire. The man came running back to save his car, and was shish-kabobed when the car did a little explodey thing; dead! All this to make sure the woman stayed with him on his bridge, and didn’t leave him or have that surgery she wanted so badly. In the end, she finds out anyway, and realized immediately she'd have to drug him to get away from him and find the people who wanted to help her. He’d never have let her go otherwise! Which she did.

Then, she forgives all this stuff and visits him in jail, where he’d gone for vehicular-exploding-manslaughter. Oh, she does love him, after all. He is angry with her at first; refusing to look at her, asking why she’d tried to forget him, why she hadn’t visited him---didn’t she know he’d waited for her? (Is that supposed to be romantic? Because it's not, it's scary!)

Point 3. So he gets out of jail, and they meet as they’d agreed on the bridge they’d lived on as homeless lovers. They have a good time, and in the end, she tries to go home, saying ‘some things take time.’ This enrages him, because he wants her to go to a hotel with him that he’s picked out, and he screams at her. She tells him not to yell, and that they need time; he wraps both arms around her and throws the both of them off the bridge! (Insane maniac!) They struggle underwater before freezing, staring at each other and apparently coming to some obscure deep-water understanding? (Or something.) Because they pop up on the surface and climb into a passing boat, where they decide to head to the Atlantic, grinning happily (nervously) at each other!

Was the lesson of this movie to clasp our abusers and oppressors to our bosoms? I was reeling. Was this for real? This is what we women are supposed to do with men like this? See past their problems, maybe, love them for who they are rather than what they do?

“Surely the fact that he was ugly and tormented and couldn’t sleep made up for the fact that he was evil and selfish?”

A resounding NO! I could just imagine the lead male character's reaction if/when the lead female decided she didn’t like her life threatened and wanted to end the relationship. He’d have killed her for sure. The man was a mad, selfish abuser.