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Les Miserables Movie Review

Les Miserables is a 2019 French crime drama film directed by Ladj Ly. It’s a weak movie that is important in its plot, but not that well executed as a whole.

Stéphane joined the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil. He meets his new teammates, Chris and Gwada, and discovers the tensions between the different groups of the district. The film is barely based on the eponymous classic novel by Victor Hugo, but the time period instead is the present and not the past.

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And there was a lot of great ideas here, obviously the racial tensions is still a big issue in Paris as evidenced by some very dramatic, powerful scenes here. I also found the performances from its lesser known cast stellar through and through. I found the characterization quite subpar and problematic, but at least the actors all did a very good job in their respective roles.

My main issue with Les Miserables is its high resemblance to ‘Do the Right Thing’ to the point of seeming like an utter rip-off. I personally love that classic drama film from the eighties, but this one is a very inferior, pale imitation of it. It only has some good moments, but the rest is boring and repetitive and underutilized throughout.

I did find its technical aspects solid, though again nothing truly striking. This is the type of competent movie that is just okay and never anything more than that. Some of the dialogue is good and the themes are important, but hardly well explored. As for its pacing, it’s very troublesome and the movie’s structure is all over the place. The result is a flick that bored me and France never should have sent this one for the foreign Oscar instead of the brilliance that is ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. Boy, was that a missed opportunity.

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Les Miserables is competently made and well acted across the board. It’s important in its issues and it has its moments, but overall it’s a pale imitation of ‘Do the Right Thing’ that is also very badly paced and structured while also never being particularly memorable nor impactful.