Les Misérables is a remarkable movie. I’ve never seen a stage musical translated to screen with such spectacular success. Unless you hated Les Mis the musical, this movie is probably a must see.

First off, I found Anne Hathaway’s performance of I Dreamed a Dream to be so powerful it was almost overwhelming. I literally had chest spasms during her performance, it was so viscerally wrenching. If they give her an Oscar for this, I have to say she probably deserves it. And I feel extremely happy that she has completely and forever redefined that song, one of the most over-sung and over-rated songs in history, wiping away all performances that preceded it (including the London and Broadway versions, and the much lauded rendition of Susan Boyle.) I still don’t think I Dreamed a Dream is a very good song, but Hathaway’s performance does wring every last bit of emotional potential out of it.

In a similar manner, the filmmakers managed to completely reinvent this entire musical, to make it relevant again, and transcend the very dated sound of the 80’s cast recordings. Don’t forget, Les Mis was essentially a synthesizer musical at the time, and some of the key singers, while excellent, were quite stylized – I’m thinking here of Colm Wilkinson and Frances Ruffelle (both of who are given small roles in this movie version.) They re-scored the entire musical very elegantly, added a nice song for when Valjean goes off with young Cosette, and they really improved the depiction of Valjean’s growth and evolution as a character over what was done in the musical. All the casting is superb, with the partial exception of Russell Crowe, and the editing and scene composition is fantastic, maintaining the pacing of a musical throughout (except for the somewhat slow battle scenes.)

With all this said, it should also be noted that the movie suffers from the same problems the musical did, namely, that the music is just not very good. Many of the songs are extremely mediocre and gratingly repetitive and really only one song (In My Life) strikes me as a good (not great) show tune. Also, Russell Crowe is a bit of a problem in that he’s not a very good singer, and is very uneven in his solos – he’s better in his numbers with Jean Valjean, where Hugh Jackman props him up. Lastly, the CGI crap looked fake and irritating, like it always does. But I must say, I’m surprised how little these problems interfered with my enjoyment of the movie – it’s a testament to how well the film is put together.

If you saw Les Mis when it was first on Broadway, this movie will let you rediscover it all over again; for younger folks who never saw it, it’s an excellent recreation of the excitement and spectacle of the original show. Either way, it’s well worth seeing.