Les Misérables
The Broadway hit jumps loudly to the big screen.
Directed by Tom Hooper
(PG-13)
**
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“If you are in the mood for a good cry (or three!), rejoice,” said Karen D’Souza in the San Jose Mercury News. “Your eyes may well be red for days after this relentless tear-jerker,” adapted from the hit Broadway musical based on a Victor Hugo novel about social injustice in 19th-century France. Even so, “this is a bad movie,” said Richard Corliss in Time. The actors, who were filmed with no cuts and in close-up as they sang every line, are “nothing if not game.” But the strategy works only once—when Anne Hathaway, as a thoroughly broken single mother, offers a “bravura” performance of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Everywhere else it’s a distraction, causing us to worry more about whether star Hugh Jackman can hit all his notes than if his Jean Valjean will achieve the redemption he seeks after a long imprisonment. Still, Les Mis will be “a monster hit,” said David Edelstein in New York magazine. Once you “build up a tolerance” to the assaultive close-ups—and to the “foghorn” voice of Russell Crowe’s Javert—you may even find it enjoyable to be “worked over by such a big, shameless Broadway musical.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku medium: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published