The Gozum Show

I am a fan of movies that involves singing or dancing or both. I have loved musicals that have been turned into movies like Rent or West Side Story or Mamma Mia or Evita because it’s the closest I can get to Broadway.

When I learned that Les Miserables was meant to be turned into a movie, I suddenly got my fanboy on. I have been waiting for almost a year for this time to come. One of the main reasons that I am very much excited for this movie is the cast. It is indeed made up of an all-star cast where you cannot pick one that is not fit for the role:

• Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
• Russel Crowe as Inspector Javert
• Anne Hathaway as Fantine
• Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
• Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy
• Samantha Barks as Eponine
• Sacha Baron Cohen as Thernadier
• Helena Boneham Carter as Mdme Thernadier

When they first released the trailer, where Anne Hathaway sung a very emotionally-raw rendition of the iconic song I Dreamed A Dream, I saw that this movie was going places. Aside from that, I think that the cinematography and everything that makes up the movie – venue, make-up, costumes – are just spot on. However, it left you begging for more. What do the other characters sound like? We all know that they all have a background in singing but will they fit the voice quality of the characters that they portray?

This new international trailer answered that question. We heard snippets of Castle in a Cloud, One Day More and Do You Hear the People Sing. Eddie Redmayne was such a revelation in this. I wonder how the casting director for the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables ended with Nick Jonas as Marius. The only thing that I would have hoped for was that Amanda Seyfried had better vibrato for Cosette.

That was the only thing I wanted more.

One thing that got me more excited was that Tom Hooper pioneered a new process for filming musicals – he had the actors sing live instead of just syncing to a music recorded months before shooting. I think that this produced that tear-inducing version of I Dreamed a Dream. I agree with that idea mainly because in the movies, your main focus is to produce the emotions and that the singing is just secondary to the acting. In Broadway, you have to have a balance of both – a technical singer and a good actor.

I am so excited for this movie and I don’t even know how many times I have written the word excited in this post. I just wish Christmas is here already!