| by Lou | 3.55pm UK time |

After a lifetime of being confined to the stage, it is wonderful to see Les Miserables come alive at such an epic sweeping scale.

This was particularly swoon-worthy in the first half hour, from the opening shot through to the ripped pieces of Valjean's past flying over the countryside of France.

I salute Tom Hooper for approaching it with such ambition... and perhaps even more so for resisting the urge to apply it to the whole story, particularly in paring back the battle to portray it as the minor (relative to history) skirmish that it was.

Oooh I'm just making myself want to go see it again...



 

| by Lou | 6.25pm UK time |


As a lifelong Les Miserables fan who fucking LOVES the new film, I'm taking the liberty of giving you my Top 5 reasons why it's fucking AWESOME.

Colm Wilkinson as The Priest

There is a special place in the heart of every Les Miserables fan for Colm Wilkinson, the original (and forever the best) Jean Valjean. One of the highlights of my life was being at the O2 for the 25th Anniversary concert when, after the main show was over, the original cast came out and Colm stepped forward to the microphone to deliver his ubiquitous line "God on high...", prompting a spontaneous mass eye-watering/geekgasm.

So when his face appeared on screen to sing "Come in Sir, for you are weary..." it felt like a very warm nod from the filmmakers to the Les Miserables geeks of this world.

(Of course, this also had its down-points, such as my utter inability to retain any sense of composure in the film's finale as Colm joins Hugh and Anne in giving the greatest of all final lines.)