Les Misérables

The film becomes an enthralling, edifying, terrifying, sometimes funny and improbably stirring portrait of a multiethnic, polycultural cauldron where fury against injustice and neglect hovers near the boiling point.

Ly rather cleverly inoculates his film to charges of repetition by outright owning them. Of course, you’ve seen stories like before. The film freely admits, these exact same stories, these preventable tragedies and pointless injustices have been manifesting themselves for hundreds of years.

It’s that sense of beauty – of the possibility of redemption – that prevents Les Misérables from being crushed by the grim weight of the world it depicts. It’s a world in which Ly grew up, and his love of these neighbourhoods, in all their hardscrabble glory, is tangible.

For all its familiarity, Ly’s film is executed with enormous confidence and energy, building up to an apocalyptic ending that delivers on a gradual build-up of nervous tension.

There is a strong emotional connection to Victor Hugo’s giant novel, which has been turned into a Broadway musical, movies and TV shows. This version remains a tale of downtrodden Parisians and dogged policemen who hound them. Only now we get 21st-century twists: teens with drone cameras, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and a Romani circus.

The scalding final sequence of Ly’s film is powerful enough to obliterate the occasionally clumsy path by which it gets there.

The director may want to confront these issues head on – the racism and violence just below the surface. Indeed, raising it above the surface is the point. But much of the drama and humanity get blitzed by the molotov cocktails.

This stunning urban crime drama based on themes first introduced in the classic Victor Hugo novel of the same name provides a gritty contemporary twist on the notions of liberty, equality, fraternity and social justice (and their all-too-frequent absence) all these many years later. Director Ladj Ly's Oscar-nominated offering for best foreign language film hits hard, seldom holding anything back and showing viewers a side of Paris rarely seen. With its fine performances, excellent cinematography and compelling electronic soundtrack by Pink Noise, the film captivates as it works its way through an increasingly tense narrative that leaves as many questions open as it resolves. This version of "Les Miserables" may not superficially resemble any of those that have preceded it, but it leaves an impact just as emotionally powerful -- if not more so -- than any of its predecessors, bringing Hugo's message into the present and shoving it squarely in our faces.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Slow moving but engaging, Les Misérables is a well-crafted modern take on Victor Hugo’s classic novel. Ultimately a police procedural, the story often feels familiar, but strong performances from complex characters will hold your attention through the film’s intense final act.

Personally I think the director of this film failed to be more direct and more profound, especially since the story never evolves. It just boils the issue to make it blow towards the third act, so it feels underwhelming, because the most serious problem in this film is that it makes you aware of the situation but it doesn't make you being interested in those who are in that problematic situation and that's where the charm goes out the window. Hate to say the word but this film was a bit overrated.

(Mauro Lanari) Hugo can still be quoted today since social problems have proved unsolvable, perhaps due to the possibility that they derive from deeper, anthropological or even metaphysical roots. At that level would they be healable? We don't know, no one is trying anymore, and therefore here are the parlors of indignation for something destined to propose itself again and again "in saecula saeculorum" ("La Haine", Kassovitz 1995; "City of God", Meirelles 2002, "Snowpiercer" and "Parasite", Bong Joon-ho 2013 and 2019, or backwards towards neorealism: Spike Lee, Ken Loach, "Bicycle Thieves", De Sica 1948).