reMARKable

During a conversation with some colleagues just now while doing some marking on a bus on the way back to school from a learning journey, i realised that in the past four years or so i've done marking while on the road, at sea and even in the air. Bet that will never feature in any recruitment ad...

Miserable Musings

If even based solely upon the fact that it's the first movie i've seen in a cinema in four-and-a-half years (only because my father had charity tickets), i thought that i might want to post my random musings about Les Misérables, especially since after having watched the musical once and heard the soundtrack countless times, i think i know the musical at least rather well..

• Being the lead singer of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts does not equate to being suitably equipped to play Valjean, not in a musical version at least. If it were a non-musical film adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel then i would have no objections though. In other words, Russell Crowe is a fine actor, just not one who should be doing musicals.
• If you want to be really particular, then how could Fantine manage to sing I Dreamed a Dream the way she did with a freshly-extracted tooth? (Although one could argue that she channeled the pain from the tooth into her song). Just as well they didn't remain faithful to the novel, which took out her front teeth - no way she could have sung the song then.
• Unlike most, i was not all that impressed with Anne Hathaway's performance. It was solid, but nothing impressive as far as i'm concerned.
• Who was more impressive to me were the actors who still frequently perform in musical theatre (e.g. Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit).
• Speaking of Samantha Barks, while her performance in the 25th Anniversary Concert was not something i cared much for, i thought she did brilliantly in the film adaptation. I am so glad the rumoured near-casting of Taylor Swift as did not materialize. If so i might have been quietly happy when Éponine died.
• And talking about her death, i thought that it was such a pity that they cut some of the lesser-known songs, including A Little Fall of Rain, and also The Attack on Rue Plumet, even if it was in the interests of time.
• In fact, coupled with the cutting of her harmony part when Valjean is about to die, Samantha Barks got quite the raw deal. Her name didn't even appear in some of the trailers despite of the major role she plays.
• There were some nice minor touches - the re-envisioning of Enjolras' death scene while keeping the iconic image intact and Javert's pinning of the medal on Gavroche's body come to mind.

All in all, i'm glad they did a film based on the musical, in spite of my gripes. Better than not having one at all..