Russell Crowe Sort Of Agrees With Adam Lambert’s ‘Les Mis’ Critique
American Idol alum Adam Lambert recently saw Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of Les Miserablesand wasn’t terribly taken with it. One of the film’s stars, Russell Crowe, took to Twitter himself recently, semi-agreeing with many of Lambert’s points but defending the ambitious film overall.
Lambert’s strongest criticism of Les Miserables was that Hollywood tends to give good singing the second seat when it comes to their film adaptations of musicals. To drive that point home, Lambert criticized the singing of actors Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe and said that director Tom Hooper’s choice to have his actors sing live was a poor one.
“Les Mis: Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers,” Lambert wrote. “…it’s an opera. Hollywoods movie musicals treat the singing as the last priority. (Dreamgirls was good) Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Enjolras were the exceptions for me. Helena B Carter and Sasha B Cohen were great too.”
He continued, “And I do think it was cool they were singing live- but with that cast, they should have studio recorded and sweetened the vocals. Eponine’s voice was cool too… I felt like I should ignore the vocals and focus on the emotional subtext- but the singing was so distracting at times it pulled me out.”
Crowe, who has been criticized as the weakest link in the film’s ensemble cast for his singing, shared his thoughts on Lambert’s critique on his own Twitter:
@brunettemom123 @adamlambert I don’t disagree with Adam,sure it could have been sweetened,Hooper wanted it raw and real,that’s how it is
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) January 2, 2013
Lambert did have a few positive things to say about Les Miserables and thinks people should go see the film regardless.
“One more clarification: DO go see it for Anne Hathaways performance. It’s was breathtaking.”
Fun fact: Anne Hathaway is a classically trained soprano and almost portrayed Christine Daae in Joel Schumacher’s Phantom of the Opera film adaptation in 2004.
Did you see Les Miserables? Do you agree with Adam Lambert or Russell Crowe?
