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Les Miserables Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 41 Reviews)

A Terrible Adaptation
This is a good movie. I mean, not badly cast. Lovingly done. The acting is great. Yeah, you should enjoy it. Assuming you know absolutely nothing about Victor Hugo's original story. The truth is, if I didn't know better, I'd say whoever wrote the script never read Hugo's masterpiece and based it completely on the 1935 version. Come to think of it, I don't know better. That's probably exactly what happened.

I never thought I'd say this, but I am so glad Hugo didn't have to live to see this movie.

If you've read the book, you will hate this film. TRUST me. The plot, especially toward the end, is mercilessly butchered and rewritten. At some points it becomes utterly unrecognizable. Many of the revisions completely miss or even destroy the essence of characters, and some do not even make sense, the movie ending with Jean Valjean jubilant over the death of Javet, whose life he has made an enormous sacrifice to save.

Likewise, Javert would never attack Cosette; he was obsessively professional, not cruel. Nor would end his life (with minimal explanation, no less) in front of Valjean. Marius would NEVER act like Enjolras (oh, I forgot, there IS no Enjolras). Neither Marius NOR Enjolras would smile at remarks about making love to Cosette, so I find it hard to believe that some mutant hybrid Marjolras would. Cosette would never consider leaving Marius, her soulmate, to stay with Valjean, her adoptive father. And above all, Jean Valjean would NEVER, EVER fall in love with Fantine. The mere suggestion of this limits the portrayal of his charity to people he takes a special interest in.

Small variations are to be expected in any film adaptation of a book, but these all completely distort characters. The people who made this movie may have gotten the message (love, charity, etc.), but they missed the point.

If you've never read the book, see this movie. It is touching and carries a good message.

But it is not Les Misérables.

A book too good for Hollywood
I warn anyone against doing what I did--finishing the fantastic book and then watching the movie shortly afterwards. The movie would have been fine in its own right, but it was a poor interpretation of the novel. Obviously no movie can fully represent all of the characters and scenes in a 1400 page book, but even the themes were badly altered. A deep and complex novel was reduced to a sappy teenage love story with a Harrison Ford-Tommy Lee Jones type chase thrown in for drama.

Even the appearance of the characters was bothersome--Cosette was played by an actress who was about 8 years too old and the "hulking" Liam Neeson was about 50 pounds and 3 cycles of dianabol away from even hinting at the strength the main character was supposed to possess. But those were minor issues in comparison with the interaction of the two--Jean Valjean striking Cosette (which he never did or would do) and her forcing him to confess about his past. He hid this from her throughout the ENTIRE book and this sacrifice was one of its central themes.

Not a bad movie if you haven't read the book, but if you have--get ready to cringe.

This totally emits the point Hugo was trying to get across!
This movie is a absolutely terrible version of a wonderful book and a great play. While the actors were good, the way the story was interpreted was not! First of all, Valjean did not beat up the Bishop! Second, Valjean was arrested and jailed again before going to get Cosette. Third, the Thenardiers didn't give up Cosette that easily, and they were omitted from the rest of the story, even though they were meant by Hugo to be major characters. And what about Eponine? She was supposed to save Marius' life! In this movie, Marius is shown as a hopeless romantic, which he was not! And he wasn't the leader of the students until the fighting began-Enjolras was the real leader. Cosette never would have hit Javert, and Valjean never would have hit Cosette. Cosette lived to make Valjean happy-she never would have thrown a fit in his presence! But it was the ending that bothered me the most. It is so incomplete! First of all, Javert jumped off of a bridge, and Valjean wasn't there. And I don't think that Valjean would have run away smiling! How could anyone know what happened to Marius, Cosette, and Valjean? I think that it is a pretty important detail that Cosette and Marius get married, and Valjean dies! This is a romance movie trying to tell a story of hatred, human suffering, and repentance. Need I say more?

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