OT After Christmas Update
We had a wonderful Christmas and had the family here for a very nice time. Good food and family. I was able to eat my normal small amount and stayed on program. As I have said before I felt a little down not being able to eat all the goodies, but am happy with my life at this time. As part of our Christmas celebration Jackie and I planned on going to a movie. We went to the theater to see Les Miserables at 11:20. It was sold out but we did get tickets for the 2:20 showing and what a wonderful experience it was. My review of the movie follows. I know this is not really part of my weight loss journey, but it is part of my life and I want to share it with you.
Les Miserables a story of repentance, redemption, and salvation. I have seen the stage play at least 3 times, Have the music, several different ones. Never read the book. Kind of understood the story from seeing other movie productions and stage plays. Never really understood the story until I saw the movie last night.
What an experience. I am not one who normally likes musical movies. But I want to say that only the brain dead music hater would not love this movie. The singers for the most part may not have been as good as some of the people I have heard on stage, but what the director did was to have them sing/act. That is sing on stage live as they acted. It was extremely effective. You could see and hear the emotions in what they were doing instead of just lip syncing to a prerecorded sound track done in a studio.
The scenery is outstanding and spectacular. The performances of the actors was amazing. I had to take many occasions to wipe tears from my eyes. I was not the only one in the theater to do so. I could hear other people sobbing quietly around me. It really effected me emotionally especially at the end. I did not want it to end and can assure you I will buy it when it comes out.
The only drawback was that it was not shown here in an IMAX theater. The music as good as it is could have been much louder. But as there is very little dialog that is not sung, maybe they did not want the music to overpower the words. But the theater I was in had the volume way to low.
Please go to the movie with someone you love. I never realized the background religious meaning of the story. In this world today it is great to see something of value like this coming out of Hollywood. I have seen most of the pictures nominated for the Academy Award, and as much as I loved Lincoln, this film is better and Hugh Jackman is the best actor of the year in my opinion.
Visit my Blog at http://www.lwassmann.blogspot.com/ 
Larry, we saw it last night. My 14 year old was with us. Her assessment after the movie: everyone in that movie needed a hug. Indeed, it is heartbreaking in places. And I agree, Hugh Jackman was amazing. They are also talking Oscar for Anne Hathaway. Her performance during "I Had a Dream" was one of the most raw, the most soul-baring performances I think I have ever seem. Cinematic history made there for sure. I wasn't familiar with the story. I don't think it was the movie's fault, but it seemed to jump quite a bit with characters being Introduced almost randomly. How closely did the stage production match the movie?
Sleeved 6/12/13 - 100 pounds lost to get to goal!
I read the book in high school. It's long, and of course is translated from French, and translations don't always read so well. I don't generally choose sad movies or books--real life is plenty tragic enough--so hadn't been at all interested in seeing the film, but your review and others are changing my mind.
I could never quit get the relationship of all the characters in the stage play even seeing it the many times I saw it. The movie makes it very clear who is who in the story. Some of the characters do come into the movie without much introduction but the movie is quite long and to do much more you would have to take a lunch or dinner with you. Like I said I did not read the book either. Well as far as this being a tragic movie. It depends on how you look at it. On the good side the main character goes from being a low life thief to an outstanding person who devotes his life to a young girl to fulfill a promise to her dying mother. He goes on finally to realize he has made a difference in a lot of peoples lives and finds out he is truly loved. To be real happy in life, my opinion, you got to contrast it with some unhappiness so you can tell the difference. In this movie you get to see the triumph of good over evil and that should make anyone happy. Many of the movies these days just use gratuitous sex or violence to sell to teenagers. And that makes me sad.
Visit my Blog at http://www.lwassmann.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the review Larry. I love the music and have seen parts of it on PBS but I heard a critics review of the movie and wasn't sure if I still wanted to see the movie but you changed my mind. RE: Lincoln, our son raved about it, husband wants to go but for some reason I can't bring myself to go. Hope I can get into the mood.
