Les Miserables

"Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men, it is the music of the people who will not be slaves again..."

I am struggling a bit this morning with this particular ear worm. You look a bit daft singing rousing choruses while dropping your kids off at school.

As you will have worked out I went to see Les Miserables with a friend last night at the Showroom Cinema. We did avert disaster after a minor heart stopping moment. We'd be gassing so much we hadn't realised we were actually in the wrong screen until the page for Django Unchained came up. That could have been dodgy. With hindsight we did wonder why we'd been put in seats C9 and 10, one either side of an aisle. Fortunately our film hadn't started.

I am rather pleased I didn't encourage Paul to come with me. It's not just that particular show, but any film where the cast sing every line of dialogue is a bit of an issue for him. I'm remembering Sweeny Todd in particular (just because it's Johnny Depp doing it doesn't make it easy to listen to).

As it was I went with a friend who is clearly at least as soppy as me because she passed me a tissue during "I Dreamed a Dream" and I hadn't quite worked up to tears yet. It was "A little fall of rain" that got me most. That and the very end.

And the cast? Well there were some wonderful actors and singers. I sadly wouldn't put Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe amongst them. I'd take my hat off to them (if I was wearing one) as it looked like a complete nightmare to learn, but honestly I would have rather seen a less famous name who could really sing. But then Russell Crowe in particular has never really done it for me and good as Hugh is as an actor I couldn't quite get Wolverine out of my head.

My favourite actor was Daniel Huttlestone, a beautiful young boy with fantastic charisma. I also loved Samantha Barks once I got over how tiny her waist was.

I can't stand Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy usually (apart from Madagascar obviously), but he and Helena Bonham Carter were fantastic. I wonder whether she ever thinks "please let me be the beautiful female lead this time instead of the mad woman". Probably not - it looks much more fun being barmy.

So in summary, it's long, it might make you cry and you'll be singing the best bits for days afterwards.

8/10