My Review: Les Miserables (8/10)

¨But remember this, my brother, see in this some higher plan. You must use this precious silver to become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, by the Passion and the Blood, God has raised you out of darkness; I have bought your soul for God! ¨

Academy Award winning director, Tom Hooper (The King`s Speech), brings one of the most famous musicals based on Victor Hugo`s 1862 novel, Les Miserables, to the big screen with quite a remarkable screenplay adaptation, a beautiful production design, and some stunning performances from the cast. The film is directed in such a way that you feel like you are watching a conventional stage musical rather than a movie. For the viewers like myself that live far away from the big cities and have no option of watching a live musical this is as close as it gets for us. Hooper took a huge risk by letting his actors sing live on set while they were performing instead of simply having them doing playback like in most musical adaptations. This is in my opinion what gave the film such a livelier feel to it and made me feel like I was watching a play. The film is almost entirely sung as there is very little dialogue, so if you aren’t a big fan of musicals you will want to stay away from this one. My only complaint about Hooper`s style of direction is that he used extreme close ups on every character during most of the film, which didn’t allow us to enjoy the grandeur of the production design as much as I would have liked. These close ups were a bit too much for my taste. Most of the songs performed were done in long takes so I can imagine how hard and exhausting it must have been for the actors to get each take right. I enjoyed this film very much, but did have some issues with the length of the movie. Even so, this is a great film and Tom Hooper successfully manages to adapt this well known play. It deserves all the recognition it is getting.

For those of you familiar with the novel or the stage play you might want to skip this second paragraph focusing on the plot. The film takes place during the post-French revolution time period where we are introduced to prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), who has spent the past 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his dying niece. He is finally being released, but Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) warns him that he must not break parole. ¨Once a thief, always a thief¨ is his motto and he`s sure Valjean will end up behind bars again. Jean finds it extremely difficult to find a job after being marked as a criminal and is very bitter about life, but he finds redemption in a Bishop who saves him from returning to prison and makes him turn his life around. Jean breaks parole and begins a new life as a successful businessman who becomes mayor. He is a kind person, but his past continues to haunt him as Javert appears several years later and recognizes him. Jean has to go on the run again, but not before he makes a promise to a former employee of his, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), to care for her child. Jean wasn’t aware that she was fired from his business after the employees discovered she had a child and was single. Fantine was forced to turn into a prostitute in order to maintain her child, Cosette, who is being cared for by the Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) who take advantage of her. Feeling guilty for what has happened to Fantine, Jean pledges to care for Cosette and buys her from the Thenardiers. Several years later we see Jean and Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) enjoying life together as father and daughter, but once again Jean`s past catches up to him as he runs into Javert during the student revolution led by Marius (Eddie Redmayne). When Cosette and Marius fall in love with each other, Jean realizes he won`t be able to run all his life.

We are all familiar with the story and the universal themes that this classic novel touches such as love, redemption, mercy, poverty, and the revolutionary spirit. The film captures all these themes perfectly thanks to some wonderful performances from Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway who both received Oscar nominations. My favorite character however was the young Gavroche who was played brilliantly by Daniel Huttlestone. Samantha Barks as the broken hearted Eponine also gave a strong performance. Much of the success of the film is owed to these great and inspiring performances. The songs were also beautifully delivered and I enjoyed most of them. I think my favorite one came from the student revolutionaries, ¨Do You Hear the People Sing? ¨ Les Miserables will please fans, but those who have no taste for musicals or haven’t enjoyed the stage productions will hate this film because it is manipulative and over the top. Having that said, I still think Hooper`s effort pays off and he`s made a great musical, although his best film was the much smaller and far less ambitious in scale, The Damned United, which catapulted him to fame. I did not feel as emotional as other people did about this film, and wasn’t moved. In all honesty I was a bit exhausted by the time the credits began rolling, but it still was an entertaining film worth checking out for the performances alone.

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My Review: The Dictator (5/10)

¨I love it when women go to school. It's like seeing a monkey on roller-skates. It means nothing to them, but it's so adorable for us. ¨

Like all of Sacha Baron Cohen`s comedies, The Dictator is irreverent, offensive, and makes fun of pretty much every stereotype out there. He had huge success with Borat, a film I found extremely funny and smart, but the joke has gotten repetitive in his next films Bruno and this one. There are some hilarious moments in The Dictator, but there is also a lot of stupid and gross out jokes that made me want to stop watching at times. Cohen has gotten to the point where he needs to explore new themes and stop being so repetitive. He has proven he can make smart comedies with a sharp satirical tone; he makes fun of the crazy stereotypes our society has and despite making us laugh he also pulled our ears and made us think about our own conduct and behavior. In Borat he used this satire to the extreme, but it kind of has got lost in his latest films which try to entertain with cheaper and dirtier laughs. There are some great moments that work really well in The Dictator and had me laughing really hard so this movie wasn’t terrible either; it did have some genuinely funny moments. Like in Borat and Bruno, Cohen got Larry Charles to direct his latest film. I really was hoping this film would be funnier because the trailers looked great and the publicity behind it by Cohen was quite funny as well (who can forget the Ryan Seacrest incident during the Oscars where Cohen showed up in character as the dictator and dumped ashes on his suit?). I think it`s time for Sacha Baron Cohen to explore new themes because he has proven in the past to be a great comedian.

Hafez Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen) is the oppressive and wealthy dictator of the Republic of Wadiya (a made up Middle Eastern country). He rules the country with a very fierce hand and oppresses everyone. The film works as a satire of some of the Middle Eastern dictators we`ve all heard about in the news and Cohen got his inspiration for his character from all of them. But Cohen also makes fun of Americans and the stereotypes they have of the Arabs as well; this is best expressed in John C. Reilly`s character. Aladeen is forced to travel to the United States after being threatened by the United Nations for having a nuclear program. Along with his advisor and uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) they arrive in New York the day before the meeting, but what Aladeen doesn’t know is that Tamir has other plans for him. He has brought a Dictator look alike and is planning on killing Aladeen and having the imitator take his place and announce that he will change the constitution of his nation and bring back democracy to the people of Wadiya. Meanwhile Aladeen is taken hostage by Reilly`s character who begins to torture him. The first thing he does is cut off his supreme beard, but Aladeen manages to escape after a freak accident. Aladeen arrives outside of the building but no one recognizes him as his imitator has already taken his place. He is surrounded by protestors and one of them, Zoey (Anna Faris), decides to help him and take him in. For the first time in his life, Aladeen can`t have things his way and a series of comedic events ensue.

There are several funny moments in this film and some great lines, but for the most part the film goes way too far with several gross out jokes. I really enjoyed the helicopter scene where Cohen`s character is talking to his friend in his own language while two senior Americans are sitting in front of them worried about what they are saying since all they can make out are words like 911, Osama, Empire State Building, and Statue of Liberty. This scene was hilarious and had me laughing really hard, but it is about the only memorable moment I can rescue from the movie. There are some funny lines like when the dictator is helping a woman give birth and tells her the terrible news that the baby is a girl. The film makes fun of a lot of these stereotypes where women aren`t considered very important in Arab culture. Sacha Baron Cohen is very irreverent and offensive; he has no problem in expressing what he thinks. He doesn’t hold back anything and says things how they are. In my opinion this is what made him such a successful comedian, but at the same time he can also take things to an extreme and gross fans out due to the crude and explicitness of his jokes. I`d recommend this only to fans of Cohen who aren't scared off by his humor.

      

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My Review: Hugo (10/10)

¨Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do... Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken. ¨

Hugo is a beautiful film that works really well as a love letter from Martin Scorsese to all movie buffs, especially those who are fascinated with its history and origins. Hugo is a family film, but Martin introduces a bit of history so that everyone can become familiar with how it began. It`s like a film history lesson made in a very entertaining way. There are several funny scenes that kids will enjoy (mostly the scenes with the inspector chasing after Hugo), while there are also several serious and beautiful moments which serve as a homage to film history. Hugo works as sort of a poem and it is just marvelous to look at and listen to. I loved every second of this movie and every scene was so rich in meaning and just beautiful to look at. The use of 3D in this movie is just spectacular and I think Scorsese has used it better than any other film to date (including Avatar). This is Scorsese’s first film in 18 years that gets a PG rating, it’s his first time working with 3D, and it also is the first time in twelve years that he`s worked without Leonardo Di Caprio. That is a lot of firsts for a film that is done in such a marvelous matter. This is one of the best films of the year and it deserves every single one of its five Oscar wins. The visuals, the sound, the story, and the cast are all excellent in this wonderful movie and it`s really worth the price of admission. By all means pay the extra fee to see this film in 3D because it is well worth it. Scorsese knows his film history lesson and he really pays a beautiful homage to those early films which he has worked so hard to make sure get restored and saved.

The story takes place in a train station in Paris where twelve year old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives on his own hiding and running from the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) while making sure all the clocks in the station work. Hugo is on his own because his father (Jude Law) who was a clock maker and worked at a Museum died in a fire. All Hugo has left is a broken automaton that he was trying to fix with his father. Hugo believes that this automata holds a message from his dead father, therefore he works endlessly to try to find the right pieces to fix it. Hugo survives by stealing from the different shoppers in the station. One day he is caught stealing by a toymaker named Georges (Ben Kingsley) who orders him to give him everything he has in his pockets. Georges takes a notepad that Hugo`s father had given him, so Hugo decides to follow the grumpy old man home in order to retrieve his notepad. This is where Hugo meets Georges`s goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who befriends Hugo and the two begin to have adventures together. Isabelle promises to get Hugo`s notepad back and helps him finding the missing pieces needed to fix the automaton. Isabelle also introduces Hugo to the world of literature, while Hugo teaches her about cinema. Together they discover the truth about Georges and decide it is about time he stops hiding from the past.

Hugo is based on Brian Selznick`s children book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and the screenplay was beautifully adapted by John Logan (who previously worked with Scorsese in The Aviator). Besides being a love letter to the origins of film, the movie also has a very powerful message about finding purpose and meaning in life. Like machines, people can be broken if they don`t know what their true purpose in life is. Every piece in a machine has a specific function that makes everything work, and in the same way every person has a purpose that allows life to continue functioning as planned. I really loved the performance from the two kids in this movie: Butterfield and Grace Moretz. They looked lovely together. Grace Moretz is my favorite young actress and she just has the screen presence and charisma that other actresses don’t have. Ben Kingsley was magnificent in his key role, and so was Christopher Lee. Sacha Baron Cohen was funny as always, and his character served as the comic relief because I imagine many kids getting bored if the film only focused on the Georges character. This is really a great family film and one you should see, especially if you are interesting in the history of films and how it all began. There are several scenes from early films, and I can`t imagine how any true film lover wouldn’t like this wonderful movie. It`s a masterpiece.

    

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