Les Miserables

I would have to say I'm fairly familiar with Les Miserables as a stage musical, (I played in the orchestra for a production about 6 years ago.) so I had high expectations for this new film version, but I was also apprehensive about certain aspects. There have been many mixed responses to the film from patrons and critics alike, but I was overall incredibly pleased with this movie. 
I found Tom Hooper's direction lovely and very appropriate for a movie-musical, for the most part. There is a scene transition towards the beginning that took me out of the world for a moment, which I wish hadn't been so fantastical. I also found the camerawork during "Bring Him Home" somewhat confusing. Movie-musicals (or movie-operas, in the case of Les Mis) are tricky endeavors for filmmakers, because the audience is reminded that what they are watching isn't quite real every time a character breaks out into song. On the other hand, one of the benefits of transitioning a musical to film is the closeness of the audience to the cast. When in a theater, the distance of audience members from the cast means that actors have to make everything "bigger" from their facial expressions and gestures to the volume of their voices and film eliminates that necessity. This element especially I think was very well handled by Hooper and the cast. During many songs, particularly "I Dreamed a Dream," the camera holds on a close-up of the actor's face, letting them use subtlety in beautiful ways and bringing the audience into the story more. Most of the tears I shed while watching the film (and there were many) were because I was face-to-face with the suffering of the characters. 
Going back to "I Dreamed a Dream," Anne Hathaway got a lot of criticism initially for her take on this iconic song, in large part because she isn't belting it to the back of a packed theater, but barely able to get out the words, breaking down in every way. I found her performance absolutely magnificent throughout, but during this song, I was utterly captivated. 
Someone else getting a lot of criticism for their performance in this film, at least from theatre-goers, is Russell Crowe. I didn't hate his performance, but it is markedly different from his cast mates, and I think this stems from their different backgrounds. Russell is a film actor and a rock singer. He's never done a musical before, movie or stage, and I think this lack of experience with the genre shows and has caused some to call his performance "wooden" or "lackluster." Even in film, audiences expect "big" performances from actors in musicals and Crowe delivers a lovely film performance, which is much "smaller" (meaning more precise, subtle, etc). Unfortunately it just doesn't quite mesh with the performances from the other actors who all have some sort of theatre or movie-musical experience. 
Hugh Jackman is incredibly powerful as Jean Valjean, even though "Bring Him Home" is a tad out of his range. He, like Hathaway, plays the songs with overwhelming emotion and it works. Eddie Redmayne was a wonderful surprise as Marius, with an angelic face and voice. His performance of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" will haunt me for days. A friend of mine complained about the vibrato in Amanda Seyfried's voice, saying she "sounds like a lamb," but I replied "at least she hits the notes," because, to her credit, she does hit the notes and they are not easy ones. The rest of the supporting cast are all really magnificent. Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche is outstanding and I only wish so much of his part hadn't been cut. Samantha Barks's experience as Eponine shows and she makes the transition from stage to screen beautifully. Colm Wilkinson (the original stage Valjean) has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as the Bishop. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are expertly cast as the greedy, conniving Thenardiers. My personal favorite is Aaron Tveit as Enjolras. I've long been a fan of his stage work and he is just heartbreaking perfection from beginning to end in this film. If anything pulls me back to the cinema to see this movie again, it'll be his performance. 
The film also includes a new song, "Suddenly," from the original composers. At first, I was up-in-arms against the addition of a new song, but I thought it worked quite well in the film, not at all out of place amongst its brothers. And after all this, there is the story of Les Miserables itself, a tale of the still-relevant struggle between the miserable poor majority and the powerful wealthy minority, of love of all kinds, of faith, of good and evil and the gray area between them. A tale, simply, of life, beautifully told.