Cosette hits the big screen

Christmas night--Les Mis!

The sad thing is, I'm sure I have more thoughts than these. I just can't think of them at the moment.

The Good

• I loved the incorporation of elements from the book that aren't in the stage version. Marius lives in an apartment next to Eponine! He has a rich grandfather, but lives on his own! Valjean and Cosette are taken in by Fauchelevent in Paris! The use of the cafe in the barricade scenes!
• Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop. I may have spent a good chunk of his scenes getting choked up just at the idea of him playing this role. Also, he's good.
• The improved clarity of the story. I noticed a good number of cuts of songs in the beginning, but it was fine--just actually being able to see the story in a way you can't on stage told the story. Also, everything about Lamarque and the cause of the student rebellion (and the fact that it wasn't the French Revolution) was so much easier to understand. And there's follow-up to Valjean taking Cosette from the Thenardiers. It always seemed odd that Javert just...disappeared.
• The acting, pretty much across the board. I wasn't completely enamored with everyone's singing all the time, but the acting was good enough to elevate the singing. I bought the soundtrack (it was only a few bucks, so why not?), but I doubt I'll listen to it a ton.
• Grantaire. Grantaire (i.e., the drunk student) is my favorite. They took out his verse of "Drink With Me" and "What's the difference--die a schoolboy, die a policeman, die a spy?" (BOO), but Hooper had enough reaction shots of him and Enjolras in "Red and Black" to make me happy. Also! Including the death scene from the book. Seriously, the rest of this movie could've sucked and as long as they left this scene in, I'd still buy the DVD. They downplayed the Grantaire/Gavroche relationship...I think. Grantaire looked a bit like another of the students, so I couldn't quite make out who it was who had the breakdown at Gavroche's death.
• Hadley Fraser. He was Grantaire in the 25th anniversary concert and Raoul in the Phantom 25th anniversary concert and played the officer who led the charge against the barricade. I adore him. I had thought his role would be a minor role, but he actually got a bit of screen time. And some interesting acting choices. He seemed conflicted about what was going on, which is not something you normally hear from the officer's offstage voice in the show.
• I kind of fell in love with Aaron Tveit as Enjolras.
• The scene with the Thenardiers and Javert. I could've watched that FOREVER.
• Russell Crowe. I was concerned about his voice going in, and he certainly didn't blow me away, but he sounded fine and he acted the hell out of the part.
• "Do You Hear the People Sing?" became much, much more powerful than it is in the stage version. Loved how it was done.
• The ending. I was practically sobbing. (In a good way!)
• Little Cosette. I instinctively roll my eyes at "Castle on a Cloud," but I enjoyed her for the rest of her time on screen. Great with Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.

The Bad

• Tiny nitpick: I actually thought the stage version did a better job of showing time passing in Fantine's descent as a prostitute. In the movie, it seemed like it took her about a week to catch Prostitute Death. 
• Taking out Grantaire's verse of "Drink With Me." Never forgive, never forget.
• Amanda Seyfried. Nobody likes Cosette to begin with, and her voice wasn't that impressive. Meh.
• It couldn't be helped, really, but "One Day More" was much less effective on screen than on stage. There isn't an act break, and that kind of number just doesn't work as well on screen. Also, the end of it was screaming for a pull-away shot. And we didn't get it.
• Though the action was easier to understand in general, I found the battle scenes at the barricade hard to follow (which is fine--you could tell that the students weren't having a good time of it, which is really all that you need). However, with the action all over the place, it lost some of its power to move me. The death of the students is one my tear-triggers in the show, and it just didn't happen. Despite the awesome Enjolras/Grantaire death scene.
• Gavroche. I know. Maybe I'm dead inside. I just don't really care about him, and he has a bigger role in the movie than on stage.
• Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe should've been aged more. At the end, it was like they realized that Valjean has to (spoiler?) die at the end of the movie and so had him be all, "Ooh, my back hurts!" Adding gray or white to the guy's hair wouldn't have been too difficult. This is what Colm Wilkinson looked like by "Bring Him Home" in the original production.
• "Suddenly." Don't care. Look, I get that they want to be eligible for Best Song categories. Still don't care.

The Direction
All of the criticism about Tom Hooper's direction is warranted. He got some fantastic performances from his actors, and did a great job with the casting. But...really, the criticism of all the close-ups is completely justified. I'm fine with tight shots during the soliloquies, but when two people are conversing, it's OK for them both to be on the screen at the same time. I wanted to see what else was going on. I want to see how the other characters are reacting--and there are moments in the movie where the reaction shot is more important than the shot of whoever's talking. I almost became nauseated at times. This is a major problem, because it greatly affected my enjoyment of the movie.