Les Misérables

Yes, I’m gonna be another muck that raves about this movie.

I don’t proclaim to be a crazy les miz fan – in fact I didn’t even remember what the storyline was about and was too lazy to read the wiki entry on it (TL;DR… but read it after I watched the movie!) But it turned out to be close to 3 hours of awesome – the actors delivered absolutely compelling performances. I was completely won over.

Hugh Jackman and Valjean’s Soliloquy

Anne Hathaway and I Dreamed a Dream

Samantha Barks and On my Own

Eddie Redmayne and Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

The entire ensemble and One Day More… Do you Hear the People Sing

And did you know they sang live? That lent their performances such an imperfectly perfect raw quality. Amazing. Almost every solo was shot with a close up of their faces; few transitions and pull aways, lending to the intensity and power of the execution of the song. The emotions…

OHMYGAWD so good. so riveting. goosebumps.

One thing I kept noticing was that Eddie Redmayne needs to shake his jaw for vibrato.

Ok to lighten things up, there was a typical Beng / Lian couple sitting beside us making comments EVERYWHERE. Slightly annoying but some were hilarious. Here are some snippets of what I can remember:
(Edit: included some loose translations for my non mandarin reading folks.)

• 她拔了牙还可以唱歌? (pluck teeth already still can sing?)– When Fantine sings I Dreamed a Dream
  
• 这样就死掉？(just like that, she die already?)– When Fantine dies
• 如果他掉下去我会笑 (if he falls down, i sure laugh.)– When Javert sings Stars
• SHIT (faeces!)– When Gavroche dies
• 她的腰细到要爆炸(her waist small until want to explode.) – When the Beng first sees Samantha Barks

Brace yourself for the most epic comment:

• 很像 wolverine leh. oh 原来是那个 HUGE JACKMAN (looks similar to wolverine leh. oh it really is that HUGE JACKMAN)
  

…

and half the time the Lian was complaining that she was 很乱(very confused) and that the show was 很(very) boring. TSK?

Anyways if you haven’t caught the movie CATCH IT. Think twice if you are a dimwitted lian.

Other related awesome videos:

Nick Pitera is awesome.

Bride and Groom have awesome friends.

kthxbye