Les Mis, The Guilt Trip

Les Misérables:

I was a huge fan of Tom Hooper's last picture, The King's Speech, but I still wasn't sure if I would be into this flick before seeing it.  I'm not really a musical guy, so I had absolute zero frame of reference as to what to expect (besides what was in the trailer).  I was afraid I wouldn't understand the dialogue being sung, and that it would be too pompous and boring, but I was very wrong.  I actually sat through that near three hour musical absorbed and entertained the entire time.

I'm flabbergasted (a word I seldom get to use) at the middling response this film is getting from critics.  All the main actors are at the tops of their games here: Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is brilliant, and Hugh Jackman is absolutely amazing in the lead role of Jean Valjean.  He simply must get a nomination for the role.  And I've been hearing mixed things about Russell Crowe, but I thought he did a fine job as well (again, I'm unfamiliar with other Les Mis's).  The camera goes as close to the actors as you can get, with all of their emotions pouring out of the screen. Hooper brought this tale to life so damn well, I'm sure that if placed in other hands I would have been asleep.  His decision to have the actors sing live instead of dub themselves over in a studio makes a world of difference in their performances.  And the art direction is so well done, with every set piece and location brimming with movement and little details.

Here and there things might have dragged a little (like Sacha Baron Cohen's "comic relief" and a love-at-first-sight moment), but I thought this was a moving, goosebump-inducing achievement. As long as you don't mind your movies/musicals a little bombastic, I think Les Misérables is an incredibly big and beautiful film.

Rating: A-

The Guilt Trip:

The combination of Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand in a mother/son road trip movie has nearly endless comedic possibilities.  The Guilt Trip employs none of them.  While the casting choice was inspired and spot-on, the script is bare bones on laughter or substance, and mostly comes off as annoying.  The first two thirds are embarrassing at best and it's just a shame that these two talented leads couldn't shine in their roles.  Seth Rogen is clearly phoning it in, pandering to an older crowd that couldn't handle the raunchiness that makes him who he is, in effect looking more bored than ever.  I did think there was a good chemistry between the actors however, and the last leg of the film was actually pretty sweet and heartfelt.  It's almost the reverse of This is 40; in that film the relationship stuff felt forced, but the comedy worked, and in The Guilt Trip the relationship worked, but was as equivocally funny as a singing wall bass (wait...scratch that, those are actually kind of amusing).  Unfortunately I look primarily for laughs in my comedies.

Rating: D+