You know the more I think about it the more I think that Javert was the inspiration for Batman...I'm still not convinced by David Oyelowos performance as Javert, but the man has such a hard on for justice we might as well rename him Le Chevalier Noir!!
OK so part two of the BBC mini-series has just aired and i still think it's a slow burner. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing though, it's a little better then the musical in fact because that never let's you breathe for one second. Yes in this episode Fantine basically began her decent into prostitution and I gotta say I'm just not sold on Lily Collins performance, I'm not sure what it is i just know I've seen much better Fantines in much crappier adaptations. I think it's Lily Collins face, I've nothing against her as a person I just don't think she's very expressive, and sometimes you just gotta sell it with your face. Even when she was saying goodbye to little Cosette I didn't buy that she was actually sad about it. I dunno, I just think Fantine is one of the important characters and you gotta get it right
I will say though I was impressed with her during the hair cutting scene and the teeth pulling scene. Is it horrible to say that Fantines only interesting as a character when bad shit is happening to her? It feels mean to say that...It's kinda true though. Sorry.
Kudos to this adaptation though for actually showing that properly by the way! They never show the teeth pulling, and if they do, like in the movie musical, they pull her back teeth instead of her front teeth. You might think it doesn't matter what teeth they pull, but it does matter to the story! The whole point of Fantine is that she has nothing else except her great hair and her teeth, that's why it's so tragic when she has to sell them! And for that matter why do they always switch her hair colour and make her brunette and Cosette blonde? Is it artistic? Are they saying brunettes are bad and blondes are good? Again you might not think it matters, but it does matter!!!
Another important character introduced in part two was Mdm Thenardier, played by Olivia Colman, who in my opinion was the highlight of this episode. She was very conniving and very evil and possibly one of the best performances in the episode, I say watch the rest just for her. Oh and good on this episode for showing Mr Thenardier as actually abusive for once instead of just a drunken idiot, I like that, it was a good touch.
Overall I liked part two despite still not being convinced by one or two performances. I think now that the plot is moving that it's getting more interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing the relationship between Valjean and Cosette develop next week because that's my favourite relationship in the whole book. (DON'T JUDGE ME! I HAVE DADDY ISSUES THAT I'VE NEVER RESOLVED)
Like I said before the stand out performance of part two is definitely from Olivia Colman, but the one that's still sadly lacking (In my opinion, others might see something else in him) is David Oyelowo. It's the same as Fantine right now for me, I've seen much more badass Javerts in much worse versions of the story. but David Oyelowo is a very good actor in his own right so I'm still gonna give him the benefit of the doubt because I think he's capable of a lot more.
One thing I didn't like in this episode was the scenes with little Marius, though they were only short so I wont begrudge them too much. I think I've made myself very clear in this blog about my dislike of Marius and at this point in the adaptation I really don't care about the life of a little rich kid and his dying dad. His dad's supposed to die when he's a teen by the way, why did they change that? I mean what does Marius have to do now? Is he supposed to change his political views as a child because I don't buy that for a second. It makes more sense for him to be a grown up and can form his own views on his father, that at the very least is a relatable character arc.
I think that was a bad change, and it was so short of a scene that it kind of makes the whole point of Marius and his political conversion pretty much inconsequential now.
I'm curious to see what they do with Marius now, though I don't hold out a lot of hope for him.
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So those are my thoughts on Part two, come back next week for part three.
And don't forget if you're a UK reader you can catch with parts on and two over at BBC iPlayer
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