Les Miserables review

 Number 474 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tom Hooper's 2012 epic, period musical 'Les Miserables.'

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is a French former convict who has just been paroled after nineteen years in prison. His crime? Stealing a loaf of bread. But policeman Javert (Russell Crowe) refuses to believe he has changed and is determined to send him back to prison. Meanwhile. Valjean reforms and becomes a factor worker. When one of his workers Fantine (Anne Hathaway) dies, Valjean declares to take care of her impoverished daughter Cosette.

Les Mis is what's known as a sung-through musical. Unlike other musicals, which alternate between music and narrative, Les Mis is all but music. It's a bit like Sweeney Todd. And I've learned that I do not care for sung-through musicals. Watching them are a tedious affair. I know now that music is essential to a sung-through musical, but it was overwhelming. There was far too much singing.

I say singing...they were basically singing lines of dialogue. It hardly made for memorable songs. Obviously you have Anne Hathaway's famous I Dreamed a Dream, but the only other notable song was Look Down, which was sang by the convicts at the start of the film, before being later taken up as a protest song.

The film is also over 2 and a half hours long. It could have been far shorter if a lot of the musical numbers had been trimmed. in many cases, the songs became like exposition telling the viewer what was happening instead of showing them. When Javert and Valjean's paths cross after many years, Javert sings 'a thought stirs in my mind,' which was a rather ham-fisted line of dialogue. I also did not need a whole song where Eponine (Samantha Barks) declares her unrequited love for student revolutionary Marius Pontmercy (Eddie Redmayne.) This much was obvious through her longing looks. We did not need a whole song.

As for the performances, they were as good as you would expect from such a star-studded cast, which also included the likes of Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen. Anne Hathaway deservingly won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar despite having a minimal amount of screentime.

I really did not like this film. It was a melodramatic, over-dramatic affair. And I know it was a sung-through musical, but there was far too much singing.

The King's Speech review

Number 232 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tom Hooper's 2010 biopic 'The King's Speech.'

Based on the real life story, the King's Speech follows the future King George VI trying to overcome his speech impediment. To assist him, his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) enlists the help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush.) Small note, George VI was only a regnal name. George VI's real name was Albert or "Bertie."

Released to critical acclaim, the King's Speech received twelve Oscar nominations and won four including best film and best actor. It is easy to see why. Hooper tackled a sensitive topic with tact and discretion. I think it would have been all too easy to victimise Bertie rather than make him a character to root for. But he wasn't a pitiful protagonist, but an endearing one. His family have no patience for his stammer. His older brother Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) teases him constantly while his father George V (Michael Gambon) thinks he can bully the stammer away.

Colin Firth very much earned his best acting Oscar. Again, it would have been very easy to portray Bertie as a victim. And while he was a victim of his circumstances, he was also a fiercely brave man. Rather than submitting to his stammer, he constantly fights against it and seeks help. Firth brought a real vulnerability and humanity to the role. When Edward VIII abdicates and George VI is thrust into his new position as king, he breaks down proclaiming that he hasn't a king. This was one of my favourite moments of the film.

It did puzzle me a little that the film didn't focus that much on the social context of Edward VIII's abdication. Surely events like these would have impacted greatly on George's character, but then again, these probably weren't relevant enough to include.

Overall this was a great film with Colin Firth earning his best Actor Oscar.