It’s a gorgeous suit. It’s a beautiful colour. And he wears it so well.
I interviewed Eddie Redmayne at the Les Miserables junket last weekend in New York. He is very, very nice. Doesn’t take himself too seriously, is engaging and friendly, seems kind and humble. It’s hard to not to be happy for him that he has the opportunity in this film to showcase his talent and variety and the best part about that is that, unlike some of his peers, he’s not self-conscious about the role. You really do have to let go of the vanity when you’re singing live like that, and sometimes unattractively. These are actors, remember. They’re painfully narcissistic. And with the men there’s an added element of, I dunno, dick swelling, and there’s no place, really, here for swagger or flex.
Eddie’s singing is fine. It certainly won’t offend you. But as much as I like him, and I do, so much, I can’t say I loved his Marius. There’s a Claire Danes lip and chin quiver thing that happens when he sings that I find distracting. And remember, I’m the one in the audience who wants all of it -- the melodrama, the manipulative emotional filmmaking, what critics of the movie are pointing out as its weakness, I’m the one who, in this case, because it’s Les Miserables, wants MORE. And still, still I couldn’t get with his lower facial tremors. And I have tried. I have tried since the screening to change my own mind. It hasn’t worked.
If we’re talking about distracting singing though, let’s not leave out Sacha Baron Cohen. I mean he’s funny and it’s not a badly cast Thenadier, and obviously Helena Bonham Carter is wonderful, but when it comes to the songs, Cohen sings them with what’s presumably a cockney accent mimicking a French one and the effect of it is that...to me at least...it sounded like I was hearing Borat perform Master Of The House. Let me know if you hear the same.
