VOD film review: Les Miserables
Review Overview
Cast
8Songs
9Visuals
7Rating
David Farnor | On 01, Jun 2016
Director: Tom Hooper
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne
Certificate: 12
Watch Les Miserables online in the UK: Netflix UK / Amazon Prime / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / TalkTalk TV / Google Play
Dear Building Manager,
I’m writing to complain about Flat 87 of your fine establishment. I say “fine”, but while watching Les Misérables on Netflix UK this weekend, I was shocked to find a problem with your roof: it kept leaking, causing water to run down my face several times during the film.
Upon leaving my room, after experiencing this most unfamiliar sensation – four times, no less – I was mocked by my friend for crying. I explained that I wasn’t crying, that it was just raining on my face, but they wouldn’t believe me. They insisted that it was the raw power of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s musical that, while not as good as Sweeney Todd, was given additional emotional heft by director Tom Hooper’s decision to use only live singing.
I refuted these allegations against my manliness, pointing again to the leak, perhaps a malfunctioning bathroom in the flat above. They repeated their argument, adding (in an attempt to save my face) that maybe I was crying with laughter at Russell Crowe’s singing as the lawman Javert. Or the consistently naff CGI Paris. This, of course, was nonsense: Russell Crowe was actually well cast in the ensemble of unpolished vocalists, a surprise only topped by the wonderful chin-wobbling skill of Eddie Redmayne and the mesmerising Samantha Barks. I’ve even listened to the soundtrack on repeat for the last five days.
I did, however, smirk at the naff CGI.
What about Anne Hathaway, my friend asked, singing I Dreamed A Dream? I confessed I might have shed a tear during that scene. But the rest of it I am sure was the bathroom one floor up. In fact, I’ve heard several reports of the same phenomenon happening to other men who have watched Les Miserables on Netflix in this building. This number of wet-faced men can’t be a coincidence.
So, I am writing to you to request a plumber be sent out urgently to investigate the pipes in the apartment upstairs. Or I shall have no other option than to have it rain on my face when watching Les Miserables again next month.
Les Miserables is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription. It is also available to watch online on Amazon Prime Video as part of a Prime membership or a £5.99 monthly subscription.