Excerpts ~
Fellow writer Melissa Thompson declared the Best Picture race over on November 13th when she went out on a ledge and moved the film right to the top of the Best Picture pile. “Academy voters will love this type of big production, grand scale slice of old Hollywood! Tom Hooper and the epic he’s apparently made! LES MISERABLES wins Best Picture.” Melissa might just be right. On the day after Thanksgiving, while many were out shopping on Black Friday, New York critics, writers, Guild and Academy members were seeing Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper’s dramatic musical for the first time at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
Previously Hooper and his 2010 film, THE KING’S SPEECH, won Best Director, Best Picture as well as Oscars for Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler) at the 83rd Academy Awards. LES MISERABLES is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2012 in the United States and on January 11, 2013 in the United Kingdom
At the movie’s conclusion, followed by a Q&A session with the director, Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Samantha Barks (Éponine) and Eddie Redmayne (Marius Pontmercy), LES MISERABLES was met with cheering and ovations and the same writers took to Twitter and Facebook almost immediately praising the cast and filmmakers -
Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience.net:
Jackman and Hathaway both absolutely sensational in Les Miz #omg #audiencewentwild4it. P.S. Movie also great thank God! Hooper actually pulled it off.
Clayton Davis of Awards Circuit:
Hooper tops The Kings Speech in a big way …Lincoln and Argo better get their #Oscar gloves on.
Steven Zeitchik, Arts + Entertainment writer at the Los Angeles Times:
Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables a very well done if methodical take on the musical staple.
Kris Tapley of HitFix:
Hathaway wins. GOD. I wept. Film’s a triumph. They’re on their feet here. NYC crowd ate…it…up. #lesmiserables. FYI, this afternoon’s “Les Miz” screening was NOT the first audience to see the film. Screened for SAG Nom Comm this morning.
Dave Karger of Fandango:
First #LesMiserables screening went over extremely well. I’d call it a sure thing Picture nominee for Oscar and the probable Globe winner. Hugh Jackman has a great shot to bump out Denzel or Joaquin in the Best Actor race. His singing is quite impressive. #LesMiserables.
Russell Crowe will be polarizing. I liked him but some people won’t like his voice. Supp actor is weak so he has a shot tho. #LesMiserables
On Movie City News’ GURUS OF GOLD chart, film reporter Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today is the only one to have LES MISERABLES in the #1 spot. Overall it’s holding at number 4 – for now. Among the TV spots running presently, the last the public saw of the film was the international trailer that debuted earlier this month and the recently released trailer. They vary slightly, but I venture to guess the “musical phenomenon” will still pack the same punch once it begins screening for Academy members and Oscar voters this coming Saturday in Los Angeles. For those of you who keep track on the awards season and how LES MISERABLES figures into the mix, here’s a rundown:
- 85th Academy Awards Nominations: January 10, 2013
- 70th Annual Golden Globes Awards: Sunday, January 13, 2013
- Screen Actors Guild Awards Ceremony: Sunday, January 27, 2013
- 85th Academy Awards Ceremony: Sunday, February 24, 2013
Collider has a sampling of some additional critics:
Wilson Morales @blackfilm Standing O for #LesMiserables! Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks are on stage now for Q & A.
For those who are theater purists, you will LOVE #LesMiserables! Hooper did it right. Having Barks play role again but on film was great!
Julie Stone @Julie_Stone #LesMiserables screening audience burst into applause after songs and gave a long standing ovation during the credits.
Samantha Massell @smassellsings Still reeling from the amazingness that was today. #lesmiserables#firstEVERscreening
In case I wasn’t clear, the #lesmiserables movie is absolutely UNREAL. Ten million points to #TomHooper for doing this musical movie RIGHT.
Jennifer Ravalli @JennNYU Got to be one of the first people to see #lesmiserables today @SAGscreening! It was amazing! Totally love the brilliant #eddieredmayne
Jo Foster @jo1foster Sobbed my eyes out. Les Miserables. WHAT AN EPIC MOVIE. #lesmiserables
Lucy Gibson @LucyRGibson Can’t say too much about #lesmiserables until its release but I will say this: it grabs your heart and squeezes it till you cry like a baby
I’m going to call it early but #lesmiserables has Best Picture written all over it
By Glenn Whipp
November 23, 2012
Tom Hooper’s feverishly anticipated adaptation of “Les Misérables” screened for the media, academy and guild members this afternoon at the Lincoln Center‘s Alice Tully Hall in a finished version that Hooper says he turned in at 2 a.m. Thanksgiving Day.
If Hooper was bone-tired, the ovations and cheering greeting his film must have provided both a reward and a confirmation that his movie could well be the awards season’s late-arriving 800-pound gorilla.
A sampling of the huzzahs careening through the Twittersphere from the New York crowd:
“[Anne] Hathaway wins. GOD. I wept. Film’s a triumph. They’re on their feet here. NYC crowd ate…it…up,” tweeted Kris Tapley on HitFix, a sentiment echoed by Fandango’s Dave Karger.
“Anne Hathaway could easily win supporting actress,” Karger tweeted on the chances of the actress playing the film’s desperate mother, Fantine. “Her ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ is the showstopper.”
Karger also loved Hugh Jackman as the virtuous Jean Valjean, saying he “has a great shot to bump out Denzel [Washington] or Joaquin [Phoenix] in the Best Actor race. His singing is quite impressive.”
Karger was more circumpsect on Russell Crowe, who plays the dogged Inspector Javert: “Russell Crowe will be polarizing. I liked him but some people won’t like his voice.”
Which could be a problem because, as Tapley notes, the film is completely sung, with the exception of “a spoken word or phrase there.”
Granted, the reaction mirrored the rapturuous tweets that greeted the year’s other high-profile festival films such as “Lincoln,” “Argo” and “The Master,” and should probably be taken with a grain or two of salt. At these early screenings, haters are few and far between.
Los Angeles Times movie writer Steven Zeitchik apparently was the only one keeping his handkerchief in his pocket.
“Tom Hooper’s ‘Les Miserables’ a very well done if methodical take on the musical staple,” Zeitchik tweeted. “Hathaway is a stand-out, albeit in very few scenes; Jackman and Crowe singing is solid but doesn’t reach for as much.”
The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Hooper, Hathaway, Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne, many of whom will be in Los Angeles Saturday at the six “Les Miz” screenings for academy and guild members and the media. We’re guessing they’ll enjoy sweet dreams on the red-eye plane ride here.
