Do you hear the people sing?

Tom Hooper and company's version of Boublil, Schoenberg and Kretzmer's Les Miserables is rather good. I wouldn't say it is an outstanding film; there's something rather close and claustrophobic about it, which I didn't find was the case when I saw the stage version a long time ago, and which doesn't always work to its advantage. A tremendous performance from Anne Hathaway, though, and also from Hugh Jackman and from Russell Crowe. I was sorry to hear several of the songs abbreviated, and the new song sung by Valjean to Cosette as they flee the Thenardiers and seek to evade Javert isn't really as good a replacement as it could be. There are one or two well-known British television actors in blink-and-you'll-miss-them roles, and the unit production manager, maintaining his reputation for finding and managing locations, is Patrick Schweitzer, briefly producer for part of the 2010 series of Doctor Who.