Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes
I went into this movie having absolutely no idea what to expect. I have never read the novel by Victor Hugo, I have never seen the musical... so I pretty much had a clean slate going in. As this classic story unfolded before me, I began to enjoy Les Misérables, despite its incredible length.
Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean
The story begins somewhere in France (I assumed it to be Paris) where a man is sleeping on the street and a lady walking by tells him to knock on the door of a priest. The man does so and tells the priest and his wife that he is looking for shelter and shows them a paper that states that he is a criminal name Jean Valjean who was just released from prison and that they shouldn't trust him. The priest invites him in anyway, feeding him and giving him shelter for the night. Valjean is awakened in the night by nightmares of the prison he was just parolled from... instead of returning to sleep he robs the priest of his silver and knocks the priest out in the process. The next morning the police return to the priest with Valjean captured saying they found him with the silver claiming that the priest gave it to him... at which point the priest says "Yes, of course I gave it to him... but you forgot the candlesticks, didn't you Mr. Valjean." Valjean is confused why the priest would spare him, and the priest tells him that he has just purchased his soul with those candlesticks. With this purchase Valjean must make his peace with God and become a rightous man.
Geoffrey Rush as Inspector Javert
Flash forward nine years to the small French town of Vigo, where the new chief of police, Inspecter Javert (Geoffrey Rush), is reporting to his new post. He insists on meeting the Mayor, whom everyone says is a very good, but very eccentric man. We meet the mayor and find out he is Valjean using an alias. After seeing him, Javert recognizes him as a prisoner back when he was a guard. He is certain that the Mayor is the criminal Jean Valjean who skipped out on his parol nine years before. His collegues tell him to drop it, but he becomes certain and denounces the Mayor as Valjean.
Meanwhile, Valjean meets Fantine (Uma Thurman) a former worker at his factory whom he had fired for having a child out of wedlock. Fantine is forced to become a prostitute to make money to send to the caretakers of her child Cosette. After she has been ravaged by disease from her new profession, Valjean realizes what he has done and takes her in to care for her and sends money to the caretakers. As this is happening the police capture another man that they claim is the criminal Jean Valjean and are going to send him back to prison for life for breaking parole. The Mayor goes to the trial and is unable to allow the man to take the fall for his crime so he stands up in court and announces himself to be "The one you are looking for, I am Jean Valjean..." at which point he walks out of the stunned courtroom. With proof of his earlier suspicions, Javert becomes obsessed and begins to chase Valjean across France. Valjean goes to Fantine and finds out she is about to die, so he promises to take care of Cossette as if she is his own daughter. As Valjean goes to get the girl, Javert pursues and chases him into a convent where Valjean is forced to stay with Cosette for 10 more years to avoid Javert.
Claire Danes as Cosette
Flash forward again ten years. Cosette, now a beautiful young woman played by Claire Danes, is a year away from taking the vows to become a nun. She is miserable, and begs Valjean, who is now known as Lafitte, to take her out of the convent into Paris. He agrees and they purchase a huge house in Paris from the money he had before the convent. Cosette then falls in love with Marius (Hans Matheson) a student leader of a radical group determined to reestablish the republic to France. As they plan and execute their "revolution" Javert discovers that he has found Valjean again.
You would think that with all this wrting the movie would be about over, and it is almost. I have trimmed donw the plot as much as I could, and I have still written quite a lot... that should tell you how long this movie really is. But somehow, you don't really notice... except for becoming uncomfortable in the theater seats. I have heard the musical is much better, but I felt Les Misérables was a very good adabtation of a classic novel. Geoffrey Rush's performance as the vengeful and obsessive Javert was excellent and Neeson played a very convincing Valjean. Even though you must sit through what can seem like an eternity of plotline to get to the end, it was a very enjoyable movie.
