PLOT

(A Long) Synopsis for "Les Miserables (2012)"

Based on the original stage musical, "Boubil and Schonberg's Les Miserables" from the novel by Victor Hugo

Directed by Tom Hooper

The movie starts in 1815 in France—in a setting of a prison where Jean Valjean, an overly retributed loaf thief, is imprisoned for 19 years. He finally gets released after all those years he had suffered in that prison and after all those years of being a slave. Before he gets released, a Monsieur named Javert melodiously calls him "24601" which is his prison number. Jean Valjean also replies to him and tells him that he is "Jean Valjean.” This is very significant in the movie since it tells us that Javert will not forget the prisoner.

Jean Valjean tries to search for a job but because of his unsightly reputation of being imprisoned for 19 years, no one accepts him.

The sun has already set and Jean Valjean has not seen or determined where he will settle for the night. Settling in front of a nearby church, he was offered food and shelter by a bishop, but, deceived by temptation, he steals his silvers. The authorities caught him but, though untrue, the bishop states that he offered the silvers to him as gifts and requested for his immediate release.

Moved by the compassion of the bishop, Jean Valjean vowed to live his life anew and his tearing of his parole form symbolizes this decision.

After 8 years, he is now successful and wealthy factory owner in Montreuil, hiding behind his new identity.

Fantine, a woman who works in Jean Valjean’s factory, receives a letter, saying that her daughter, Cosette, is very ill. The other jealous, conniving workers find this out, and her boss, who had an admiration on Fantine, unjustifiably removed her from her job. Meanwhile, Jean Valjean could not help her as he sighted Javert, the man who handled him as a prisinor, with a letter for him.

Losing her job, Fantine needed money to support her ill child. She tries selling her hair, her teeth and even her body and dignity, all for a few franks. Fantine, restless and tired, sees and recognizes the owner of the factory she worked in, Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean then brings Fantine to the hospital for treatment and vowed to take care of her daughter’s medical support.

Going back to the factory, Javert confesses to Jean Valjean that he had mistaken him for the convict he has handled before, who he is, and that they found the “real” Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean, feeling responsible for the life of the man whom they mistook for him, confesses his real identity, 24601. 

Main Characters:

Jean Valjean

Cosette’s adopted father. Valjean is an ex-convict who leaves behind a life of hatred and deceit and makes his fortune with his innovative industrial techniques. He finds fulfillment in loving his adopted daughter and helping people who are in difficult situations, even when it means risking his own life and welfare. Valjean adopts pseudonyms to evade the police and combines a convict’s street smarts with his newfound idealism and compassion. His whole life is a quest for redemption, and he ultimately finds bliss on his deathbed.

Cosette

Fantine’s daughter, who lives as Valjean’s adopted daughter after her mother dies. Cosette spends her childhood as a servant for the Thénardiers in Montfermeil, but even this awful experience does not make her hardened or cynical. Under the care of Valjean and the nuns of Petit-Picpus, Cosette ultimately blossoms into a beautiful, educated young woman. She finds fulfillment in her love for Marius. Cosette is innocent and docile, but her participation in Valjean’s many escapes from the law show that she also possesses intelligence and bravery.

Javert

A police inspector who strictly believes in law and order and will stop at nothing to enforce France’s harsh penal codes. Javert is incapable of compassion or pity, and performs his work with such passion that he takes on a nearly animal quality when he is on the chase. He nurses an especially strong desire to recapture Valjean, whose escapes and prosperity he sees as an affront to justice. Ultimately, Javert is unable to say with certainty that Valjean deserves to be punished. This ambiguity undermines the system of belief on which Javert bases his life and forces him to choose between hypocrisy and honor.

Fantine

A working-class girl who leaves her hometown of Montreuil-sur-mer to seek her fortune in Paris. Fantine’s innocent affair with a dapper student named Tholomyès leaves her pregnant and abandoned. Although she is frail, she makes a Herculean effort to feed herself and her daughter, Cosette. Even as she descends into prostitution, she never stops caring for Cosette. She represents the destruction that nineteenth-century French society cruelly wreaks on the less fortunate.

Marius Pontmercy

The son of Georges Pontmercy, a colonel in Napoléon’s army. Marius grows up in the home of his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, a monarchist. Marius has an identity crisis when he learns the real reason for his separation from his father, and this crisis sets him on the path to discovering himself. An innocent young man, Marius is nonetheless capable of great things and manages both to fight on the barricades and successfully court the love of his life, Cosette.

Eponine

The Thénardiers’ eldest daughter. Eponine is a wretched creature who helps her parents steal, but she is eventually redeemed by her love for Marius. She proves that no one is beyond redemption, and she ultimately emerges as one of the novel’s most tragic and heroic figures.

Intro to Les Miserables:

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a celebrated French novelist, poet, playwright, dramatist, essayist and statesman whose work ushered in the Romantic literary movement in France, one of the most influential movements in French and all European literary history. Like many of his time, Hugo promoted the virtues of liberty, individualism, spirit and nature in rebellion of the conservative political and religious establishments of Imperial France, and eventually became known as one of the most gifted and influential writers of his time. In 1862 he released the novel that would come to be known as his masterpiece: "Les Miserables". The Romantic novel paints a picture of nineteen century Paris, in all its gritty detail, at a time of revolution. Themes of moral redemption, politics, justice and human rights are vividly expressed as Hugo follows the lives of four unforgettable characters through the sordid streets of Paris.Examining the nature of law and grace, the novel elaborates upon the history of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Les Misérables has been popularized through numerous adaptations for the stage, television, and film, including a musical and a 2012 film version of that musical.The appearance of the novel was highly anticipated and advertised. Critical reactions were very diverse, but most of them were negative. Commercially, the work was a great success, not just in France, but also in the rest of Europe and the world.