Les Miserables

This is a great film, with very worthy performances.  Of course it is a good show, with some great songs, but it did not feel like a story that was interrupted by the songs one bit. The songs were part of the emotion and the drama.
There is plenty of emotion, and Anne Hathaway, Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne deserve all the awards that are coming their way.
It is a great tale. The criminal Jean Valjean is caught stealing silver, and instead of being sent down receives forgiveness and great mercy, which changes his life forever.  We see him later showing kindness to a sick woman, and then bringing up her daughter. Then we jump again to her teens, and he is set to lose her to a young man, except that the young man looks set to lose his life in an ill fated revolution.  All the while Valjohn   lives under an assumed identity, as he is on the run for breaking parole, with one officer in particular, played by Russell Crowe, making it a personal mission to catch him.  Alongside all this tension and drama, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter pay a roguish innkeeper and his wife, a bring a lighter touch of humour.
It is a long film, but the story zips along at a good pace, with the songs telling the story rather than interrupting it. As well as excitement and drama, there are some very tender moments, especially in the lull before the barricades are stormed. There is also some amazing camera shots. But for all the great acting, drama, filming and storytelling, three performances stand out especially.
Anne Hathaway has a grueling story to tell as Fantine. We meet her struggling to keep a factory job to pay for her daughter's keep, and we see her lose the job unjustly, then reduced to selling her hair, then her teeth, before taking to prostitution. With tears across her face she sings a lament for the life that she dreamed of, a very moving performance.
When Marius and Cosette first sing their love duet, there is a third voice singing. Samantha Barks plays Eponine, who also loves Marius, but helps him to meet Cosette. As songs of unrequited love go, her performance sung in the rain outside in the street has to be one of the most powerful and moving.
The song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is very moving at any time, as  Marius laments the death of his friends at the barricade. Eddie Redmayne performs it amongst the ruins with dirt and tears across his face, much more lament than song.
The film ends with a reprise of the barricade, resolute and optimistic, which is just as well given all the loss and sadness, and helped the audience broke into applause at the end. Well deserved applause, for many great performances and great story, well presented.