MOVIE REVIEW: "Les Misérables"

image via

This year’s Academy Awards are over! I couldn’t be happier with the/my winner of the evening: Life of Pi! However, Les Miz got the second most nods which made me real happy as well! The wins for Best Supporting Actress, Best Sound Mixing and Best MakeUp are all so very well deserved! I love the story of Les Misérables, having seen the Mini-Series with Gérard Dépardieu tons of times! My expectations towards the movie for the big screen were huge!

I have to applaud all the actors that are part of the film. Hugh Jackman’s voice is definitely worth an own review, but I liked it as it was unusual. So was Russel Crowe’s! Anne Hathaway’s and Amanda Seyfried’s voices were a bit weak but I absolutely loved the imperfect interpretation that made it so much more real and authentic than any other musical. I thought that not only Anne Hathaway’s superb and absolutely stunning performance but also Hugh Jackman’s passionate interpretation of Jean Valjean were oscar-worthy. 

But apart from the wonderful make-up and costumes, the glitzy performances by ALL actors and the fabulous settings, there were two things that I really disliked. The first thing were the weird camera angles that made the sets look unreal from time to time. And the second thing is the screenplay. While the first half is adapted fantastically, the second half is not! Lots of events have been left out whilst others were given loads too much time, such as the furniture-barrier scenes! The film seems unbelievably long, especially the last few scenes could have been shortened.

Don’t watch it only for its brilliant songs that stay in your mind for days to come but also for the unusually real and authentic performances and making! A very special interpretation. I hated The King’s Speech, but Tom Hooper’s got me with this one! I dreeeammed a dreeeamm!

MOVIE REVIEW: "One Day"

For everyone who doesn’t know: The novel „One Day“ by David Nicholls is my favorite novel or second favorite,  whatsoever. I’ve enjoyed reading this book so much, I cried, laughed, and fell in love with the two leading characters. As I’m a fan of novels being made into films, I was SO looking out for this one. (Especially as the director also made “An Education” which had fantastic cinematography and I like Anne Hathaway.)

And GOD, was it good. I am so glad to be able to say that the director did his best to turn the contents into a film. I’m sure it was extremely complicated to get the screenplay right and to make Emma and Dexter look accurate for their age (from 22 to 42).

The two lead actors played their parts brilliantly, the music was stunning, the cinematography was gorgeous with the respective decades being realized perfectly and the ending was so emotional that I just have to pay my respect to the whole cast and crew of the film. I wish I could give 5 stars, but it’s my favorite book and somehow it wouldn’t feel right.

photo sources: [imdb.com]