It was nice to see Jackman receive an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables not just because he did a fantastic job capturing the character but because it was a role that came with a lot of cultural baggage in the form of people’s almost impossible-to-meet expectations. It’s one of those stories whose source material holds such an emotional place in a lot of people’s lives that any attempt to put a new face to the name and history of a character is nearly doomed from the start. Which is all to say that it’s a role that comes with a fairly high degree of difficulty, and the fact that he was regarded by most as a capable, even excellent choice for the part, speaks volumes. But he succeeds precisely because of his aforementioned earnestness and his ability to genuinely emote, essentially qualities of the Valjean character. His opening sung monologue in the church is too strong for viewers to continue to deny that he doesn’t fit the part; he plays it as though it was written specifically for him.
Though his list of movie credits remains relatively short, it’s clear that Hugh Jackman has the kind of staying star power that ensures the type of longevity enjoyed by the most beloved entertainers ever to grace the screen. He’s just so damn likeable. And that doesn’t appear as though it will be changing any time soon. What’s most impressive though is that he doesn’t just use this innate agreeability to advance a bunch of straightforward hero roles. His resumé shows that he’s capable of embodying a variety of characters, usually complicated and flawed and not always completely pleasant, but he also has too much of that ‘it’ factor to not be on center stage in a story. It’s simply where he belongs.
