Anyone Surprised?
For whatever reason I can’t load the Les Miserables rave posted by Hollywood Reporter award-season columnist Scott Feinberg, and I’ve got really great wifi over here. The Universal release is going to win Best Picture apparently, and hats off to Tom Hooper and the gang if it does. If it’s over, it’s over. I can live with this, and perhaps I’ll celebrate it. The proof is in the pudding.
I actually felt the wave coming a week ago when a lady friend told me she and her daughter can’t wait to see Les Miserables “because I know I’m going to melt.” That convinced me more than Feinberg’s report.
Just keep in mind that it’s natural for trade reporters to feel flattered and excited at having been given a first-anywhere peek at a heavily hyped Oscar-bait release from a big studio, and that this can sometimes result in a more enthusiastic response than you might get from a dispassionate, even-keel viewer at another venue. I’m just saying.
L.A. Times reporter Glenn Whipp writes that “granted, the reaction mirrored the rapturuous tweets that greeted the year’s other high-profile festival films such as Lincoln, Argo and The Master, and should probably be taken with a grain or two of salt. At these early screenings, haters are few and far between.
He also noted that L.A. Times film writer Steven Zeitchik “apparently was the only one keeping his handkerchief in his pocket.”
“Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables [is] a very well done if methodical take on the musical staple,” Zeitchik tweeted. “Hathaway is a stand-out, albeit in very few scenes; Jackman and Crowe singing is solid but doesn’t reach for as much.”
The screening happened Friday afternoon at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. It’s now 8:27 pm in Manhattan and 8:27 am (Saturday) in Hoi An.
Data Lounge’s “Lyn Stairmaster” reports as follows:
“It’s 100% successful, absolutely great on every level. It will be hard to beat for Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Hooper), Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway). The little kid who plays Gavroche should be up for Best Supporting Actor. The one new song ‘Suddenly’ is lovely and could be up for Best Song if there’s a category.
“There was huge applause after pretty much every musical number, particularly Jackman’s and Hathaway’s. Russell Crowe (Javert) is the only one I had a teensy problem with because he’s not a singer like the others but he still looks great and acts it well.
“Hooper, Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and Samantha Barks (Eponine) did a q&a afterwards. Hooper gave a speech before the screening, telling us he had only put the finishing touches on it at 2 am on Wednesday morning.
“Questions, bitches?”
LES MISERABLES has less than 10 days from the commercial release date on Dec. 25 for the 6,000 members of the Academy to see it and decide it’s the one.
Am I the only one who finds this extremely screwy? Why oh why are we forcing voters into this mad crush during the holidays?
OR is there plenty of time for those who care to see the competing films and be prepared to vote? Perhaps this pushes the “passion” factor into overdrive? A smaller number of voters than ever will determine the outcome because the majority just won’t find their way to deal with the madness?
Again, why create so much frenzy at so difficult a time? Isn’t this supposed to be about EXCELLENCE?
no, i’m not surprised. it’s felt like total class since the first teaser. and after seeing Life of Pi last night, i think it will be a clear race between LIncoln and Les Mis if it’s as good as these reviews indicate
This movie is a LOCK to win Best Picture. It’s been obvious for weeks now. Although… The Hobbit? ZDT? Django? Haven’t read much about these three yet, and looking forward to seeing them way more than Les Miz…
YES!!! Anything but that snooze-fest Lincoln! Everyone I know is really excited to see Les Miz, somehow the teaser, 4 minute Featurette Trailer, then the International trailer really touched a pulse with everyone and has generated mass excitement! All you have to do is read the comments on you tube and the legions of fans are undoubtedly excited for this! Cannot wait and Saturday when the 800 pound Gorilla hits LA for the all day screenings, The Buzz then will be deafening. Anne will win hands down!
Yeah, that HUGE applause after every song? That’s because there were a boatload of NYC actors and theater geeks in the audience. Universal filled this audience with homers, and a bunch of dumbass critics were likely swayed by the borderline ORGASMIC applause. It was seriously embarrassing, and by the point every answer during the Q+A was ALSO met with rapturous hooting and hollering and standing ovations, I wish I had something to throw.
This is STRICTLY for the initiated. If you’re a Les Mis fan, and you love the show, you’ll eat out of its hand. For anyone else, it will be borderline torture.
Tom Hooper just isn’t a real fucking filmmaker. Drink every time you see a ridiculous, completely unmotivated shot. The transitions are poor, the CGI is ATROCIOUS and the whole thing is played AT. THE. HIGHEST. POSSIBLE. DECIBEL. No room for nuance here. You’ll cry, motherfucker, or Wolverine will come over and punch you in the balls.
Give Anne Hathaway the Oscar, I guess. She’s great. And Hooper stays fixed on her face during her big standout solo, and it works. Another time, Russell Crowe has one of his big solos, and the camera randomly keeps framing him from the back against a terrible CGI skyline, like Crowe didn’t bother to show up that day, and Hooper just told the operator to put the camera wherever was easiest.
Since we’ve gonna play this game (and this movie isn’t interesting unless you’re talking awards politics), then a Best Picture vote for this is a vote for musical theater. It’s NOT a vote for movies.
To give you an idea as to what kind of audience it was, they set up mics, and the first person with a question was a journalist some of you are familiar with.
“Hi, I’m Jeanne Wolf, a friend of the cast! My question is, were you guys surprised by all the applause??”
Second question was from some dude who apparently acted in a play with Anne Hathaway, and was just trying to name-drop.
It was like being at Comic Con for theater geeks.
How does this not infuriate you, Wells? This is the same Hopper that “didn’t deserve to win” two years ago.
Nice take, Gabe. That’s the kind of shit I read these comments for…
Les Miz is the exact thing the Academy is supposed to like or more importantly what THEY THINK THEY are supposed to like so it will win.
Another Oscar for a guy who doesn’t know where to put the camera or what lenses look right or what a Dutch angle is supposed to convey… yeah, that sounds about right for the Academy. Super.
I don’t care what wins best picture as long as its not this movie. I thought the academy was supposed to becoming more progressive, but we’re gonna have the last three winners be: King’s Speech, The Artist, and now Les Mis!!! It’s seems like the acaemy consist of 60ish women and theater queens
Wouldn’t be surprised at all. The story is timeless, the performances seem right up there, from what we’ve seen. I’ve seen the play/musical at least 6 times, each time with a different cast and I, too, melted every time and brought Kleenex. It’s a very personal film with that storyline but it can speak to the general public if that public (and those cynical critics) will give a musical a chance. Weird timing, though – two in row – The Artist and now Les Miserables?
Gabe:
I was applauding your audacious critique…until I realized you weren’t talking about Lincoln. But you nailed it so perfectly. Oh, well.
When I heard Crowe sing in the trailer for this the first time, I knew immediately i didn’t need to see it. His singing is so bad, compared to Jackman and Hathaway, it felt liked I’d been yanked out of the trailer and got rick-rolled.