Day 249: "It's a pity the law doesn't allow me to be merciful."

Not being a follower of theatre, musicals, or Andrew Lloyd Webber, I was never really interested in seeing Les Miserables.  Having spent some time in London, however, I could not pass up the opportunity to see the musical in the West End.  I was unimpressed, it struck me as boring, confusing, and ultimately: pretentious.  Funny thing, all of those words are the ones I still use to describe "Big Theatre."  The movie popped on TV to day, and, being exhausted, I just left it on and succumbed to the inevitable.  The 1998 movie actually made sense of the story to me.  The film actually includes a major chunk of Valjean's life that's not in the musical.  That might've helped in trying to tell the story Mr. Webber.  Taking place over decades, Les Miserables is the story of one man paying an enormous price for the crime of being horrifically poor and hungry.  Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread, and winds up paying for it for decades following due largely to the obsessive-compulsive pursuit of law officer Javert, who cannot let him go.  Seriously, man....it was a loaf of bread.  Talk about a serious misappropriation of resources.  This is simply the surface of the story, and you mus simply see the movie to catch it all.

Liam Neeson plays Valjean, Geoffrey Rush is his nemesis Javert, Claire Danes is his Valjean's adopted daughter Cosette, and Uma Thurman is Cosette's doomed mother Fantine.  The film is incredibly well acted, if a bit slow in places, but the performances make up for those bits.

If you'd like to know the story of Les Miserables this is the most easily accessible, short of actually reading the book.  I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, but it's still not something I would actively choose to watch.  I guess laziness kind of paid off here.  Give it a shot, you might like it.  7/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!