Les Miserables, the film, is not, as many people assume, a film of the musical. It`s a screen adaptation of Victor Hugo`s novel which spans twenty years in the life of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict who, when he`s desperate and on the run, experiences a conversion of sorts after an encounter with a priest. Nine years later we find him the Mayor of the small town of Vigau and owner of the local brick and tile factory. A new inspector of police arrives in town - Javert - whose memories of Valjean when he was a prison guard are provoked by one incident. Valjean of course knows Javert and makes provisions for the future in case he`s exposed. These provisions are soon necessary when Javert confronts Valjean in front of Fantine, a poor unmarried mother whom Valjean has come to love.
The broad canvas of this epic novel is too expansive to fit into two and a quarter hours of screen time. The filmmakers - screenwriter Rafael Yglesias and director Bille August have distilled the story so much that all we are left with is very broad brush strokes which on a film of this scope lead one into superficial characterisations and melodrama. I don`t envy any of the actors having to deal with what they`ve been given. Geoffrey Rush`s range is way beyond playing a cardboard cutout villain. Liam Neeson as Valjean, Uma Thurman as Fantine and Claire Danes as her grown-up daughter Cosette seem self-conscious in their roles.
If film is a director`s medium then you have to blame Bille August. He lacks a deft touch with this film. It`s ponderous and not at all subtle and somehow, all the humanistic ingredients of Hugo`s novel are made to seem like pronouncements rather than convictions.
