“Les Miserables” leaves a heartfelt impression

“Les Miserables” taught me true misery. I am tough. I am intense. I am a cynic, but “Les Miserables” touched me and I lost all my hard front and cried. For those who have never felt suffering before, let the characters of “Les Miserables” show you.

Jean Valjean is a man who was imprisoned 20 years for “stealing a mouth full of bread” for his sister’s dying baby. Fantine, played by Anne Hathaway, is cast aside as the dirt of Paris as a woman left with no dignity and no pride. She sells her body, teeth and hair all to feed her young daughter.

Javert, played by Russell Crowe feels a duty to the law more profound than the duty he feels to his conscience. Cossete, played by Amanda Seyfried, is an abandoned daughter. Eponine, played by Samantha Barks, feels love unrequited.

The pain that each one of these characters is so brilliantly portrayed by the actors, it moved every member of the audience to tears. This film will bring out the raw reality of being a human. The extent to which a person will go for love, freedom and salvation. You are a man. You are a woman. But you are a human being first.

I personally cried the hardest for the revolutionaries and their lost brothers over a war for freedom, “The cries of angry men, who refuse to be slaves again.” My favorite character was Jean Valjean, the saint incarnated.

I really can not stress enough how deeply this film moved me. I cried, and I was inspired. But on a lighter note, I laughed a bit watching Helena Bonham Carter, who is hilarious as the tavern owner.

This film is a must see for mothers, fathers, the righteous, the strong, the weak, the poor, the rich, the powerless and everyone in between. This film was made from the perspective of people who are miserable but love all the same. “To love another person is to see god.” Les Miserables, five solid, heart-felt stars.