Miserables

 

"Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face."

~ Victor Hugo

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So my friend Dave says that I should write a blog just about movie reviews.  I would love to do that - especially for a job.  If anyone knows anyone paying anyone for doing such a thing, please let me know.  Until then, I may occasionally write about movies (because I LOVE movies), and I think Dave for the encouragement.

All that said, I do not understand the love for "Les Miserables."  I saw it on opening night.  It was fine.  I thought the cinematography was good and the costumes.  It just didn't resonate with me at all.  It was way too long.  

I felt like the whole last third of the movie Hugh Jackman kept singing about dying and I just wanted him to do.  That song that Anne Hathaway sang was a pretty song.  I liked it.  But I don't think she deserved an oscar nomination for singing a pretty song and getting an ugly haircut.  And I like Anne Hathaway.  I think she's a good actress.  And I didn't think Russell Crowe was as awful as everyone says.  He was just Russell Crowe.  That's what he does.

People said they cried the entire time.  I will admit I got a little choked up at the very end because the woman next to me bolted out and kicked me and kicked my friend Ebony's purse all over the theater.  The woman probably thought the movie was only an hour and a half long instead of nine hours long and she probably had to go to the movie.

I might have been more touched if the film (or musical too, maybe.  I haven't seen it, so I'm not sure) had focused on the inequities of justice for the poor.  Jean Valjean went to prison for stealing bread to feed his family.  Then Anne Hathaway had to sell her body - literally and figuratively - to support a daughter left to the "kindness?" of strangers.  People are all sobby about the tragedy of it, but I really wonder why they don't feel the same way when it isn't white French people, but people of color here in the U.S.  Because guess what?  That stuff still happens.  People just aren't singing about it most times when it happens...

All that said...  this is what I learned about myself from Les Miserables.  Sunday night I was going to the store and  I heard parodies of the songs from Les Miserables on Prairie Home Companion.  Sometimes I like that show.  This segment, was HILARIOUS and captured a lot of what I felt about the public's response to the movie.

As I was going to the store I thought, "Oh my gosh!  How do I get home and tell everyone that PHC got it right and that I agree and that we know that Les Miserables wasn't really that good of a movie?  They will want to know.  What can I post on Facebook about this?"

Okay, I'm not sure that's exactly how my mind worked.  I'm pretty sure the, "Oh my gosh!" part was right.  And I remember thinking people would really think the songs were funny.  But what I learned was that I'm really self-absorbed.  

(pause)

Well, I already knew I was self-absorbed.  But how can I NOT be?  I have such interesting thoughts that I think.