The famous romantic novel of Victor Hugo made us old people to weep a lot over its pages in our youth. Practically everybody read it in those times. It showed the romantic literary patterns of dividing the world black and white between the good and bad guys and girls. Only that the genius of Hugo here changed the conventionally good ones into bad ones and vice versa. The good ones are here Jean Valjean the ex-convict for the crime of stealing a piece of bread to kill his hunger, Fantine the whore that a cruel society pushed into that and the revolutionary Marius fighting against a legal king's regime. The bad ones are the implacable police inspector Javert (who nevertheless turns out good in the end) and several other authorities, guardians and soldiers. The movie is inspired on this story and follows it more or less faithfully, technically well directed by the sure and strong hand of the veteran Bille August and well acted by the cast mainly by Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean and Geoffrey Rush as Javert. The images are good and show well the physical and social atmosphere of the life in France in the first half of 19th century including the scenes of the street fighting that occurred in June 1832 during the funeral of Lamarque, a liberal MP. Particularly moving are the last scenes when Jean Valjean feels free at last after many years of leading a hide and run life. And it's very gratifying to see from time to time a romantic movie with no special effects, computer tricks and gratuitous violence (although I have nothing against these movies when they are good indeed).
Review of Les Misérables
