Never read the (1400 page!) book, never saw a non-singing movie version, never seen the musical stage play, and never seen a filmed version of it as a musical – but saw Les Miserables today (all 2 hrs and 30 minutes) and really quite liked it.

All I knew was A) French revolutionaries, B) someone stole some bread, C) someone was really mad about that and wouldn’t let it go. And there’s a little girl on the poster… sometimes with a huge broom. So I had very few expectations other than A) Catwoman kills in it, Wolverine is servicable, and Gladiator should stick to his weird Australian rock band… and there’s pretty much no dialog. Borat and Bellatrix LaStrange were pretty awesome though.

I rather liked the movie but sometimes it felt like maybe the Cliff’s Notes version of the story (and possibly the musical) and I was left wondering… how this whole story hangs together and why… and the last 20 minutes or so felt super rushed like they were trying to get the story over while hitting all the important parts (which made it disjointed and with a lot of redundancy). I only knew one of those songs from the movie (Susan Boyle, I’m looking at you) but a few of the songs wormed into my ear (Red and Black, Do You Hear the People Sing).

Overall, an excellent movie that requires not a little patience at times.

Score: 90