After the release of the last trailer for Tom Hooper’s upcoming adaptation of the brilliant Les Miserables, my excitement was somewhat diminished. I didn’t like the way the trailer cut up, and I wanted some unbroken songs to really get a sense of how the music was going to play out.
Well, I got my wish, but it has only worried me more. Five clips from various songs in the film (“A Heart Full of Love,” “Who Am I?,” “On My Own,” “Look Down,” and “At the End of the Day”) have been released, and the quality is kind of all over the place. Particularly notable is Russell Crowe’s performance as Javert (above), which didn’t sound particularly great in the last trailer, but I hoped it was just a function of the way the way the trailer was done.
Nope. Not only is his vocal performance subpar, his timing is absolutely bizarre. The fact that it’s different than the way previous versions have done is fine; the way things are generally being played allows for that kind of thing, but here it seems like Russell Crowe just doesn’t know where to start singing, because it feels like he’s off beat for basically every one of his lines. It doesn’t sound good. It really, really doesn’t.
Also, his lines are different. What is that about? His lines are supposed to be, “No, it means you get your yellow ticket of leave” not “Blardy blar blar blar excess words that don’t make this better.” Grumble grumble…
The other clips are a bit more heartening, but even those are a bit strange. Tom Hooper’s directorial hand is extremely clear, and all of the songs are shot in a weirdly similar way that I don’t entirely appreciate. Wide-angle medium closeups are awesome and everything, but those shots are in need of some serious variety.
I have lots of other feelings, but I’ll leave them for another time. For the moment, you can find the other four clips can be found below. Christmas Day is going to be interesting.
[Via The Film Stage]
