Tom Hooper’s nomination didn’t come, which was slightly surprising but with less outrage. Les Misérables has become a slightly divisive film, adored by audiences and showered with “meh”s from many critics. Well, allow me to provide compensation for this lack of outrage. Hooper deserves to be in there. If you’re asking me, I think he deserves the damn statue. It seems as though degree of difficulty is rarely considered in matters of award contention, but if you ask me, taking possibly the most beloved musical of all time and trying to adapt it for the big screen and contemporary audiences seems nearly impossible. Much harder than directing a spy film featuring the movie industry. In fact, the success of Les Mis might be the most astonishing feat in movies this year, along with the amazing adaptation of Life of Pi by Ang Lee (sorry, I know I said I would talk about the actual nominees).
Not only did Tom Hooper pull off this film; for me at least, he improved on the source material. By shooting all these (unfairly decried) close-ups, he was able to allow the performers to powerfully convey the intense emotions of this story. Musicals have to be about emotion; that’s the point of making them a musical. So allowing these characters to get their emotions across more effectively is a no-brainer. Close-ups worked toward this end, but so did the decision to record the singing live. Hooper deserves so much credit for this. Talk about degree of difficulty. And the effect is exactly what I’m talking about: maximizing the emotional punch of the music and conveying the depth of meaning behind the words as effectively as possible. The cast is able to set the rhythm of a scene themselves rather than try to lip-synch their emotions to a soundtrack. That results in fakeness. Hooper’s version finally gives us real feeling.
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