Les Miserable (2012)

This is a classic book, that has been retold primarily in a musical over the most recent years.  I think that is a real shame, because while the post-Napoleonic political atmosphere was fairly histrionic phase of history, it is not quite as histrionic as it comes off in music.  The overwhelming use of song eliminates a lot of dialogue, which is again too bad, because there are some really important things going on, and the story itself is really beautifully told in the book, and is lost in the musical.

The character of Jean Valjean is the icon for the situation that pervaded France in the late 18th and early 19th century.  The Ancienne Regime, where nobility and the church took 90% of the profit and did 10% of the work, leaving the peasants with 90% of the work and 10% of the profits, became unstable.  It was never fair, but after a particularly grueling--and expensive--round of wars, the king needed more money and the plight of the lowest class became even worse.  Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew and he is imprisoned for the crime.  The punishment far exceeds the crime and he is a marked man for the rest of his life.  The man who pursues him, Jalvert, is a simple man working for the government--Valjean has broken the rules and he is to be brought to 'justice'.  Jalvert does not stop to consider whether the justice he is enforcing is a moral one or not.

The tension between these two characters, the effect they have on the course of each others lives and the way they each end up is very moving in the book, and contributes to the reader's greater understanding of what might have motivated the French to undergo such ongoing radical change that took literally decades to settle down was present in the movie, it is true, but in a way that at times seemed almost silly, rather than powerful.  Still it is a good story, start to finish.  The singing is very uneven, with Eddie Redmayne and Anne Hathaway putting in the best performances amongst the people you might have heard of.