1/26/2020 - Les Misérables (2019) - 6/10

I appreciate the intention of the film, but I don’t think it rose to the lofty levels it pushed for. I couldn’t shake the “this is Training Day” thought from my head while watching it. In comparison, it functions without the verbose extremes and the puffed up stakes, but in a perverse way, LM felt a little slight with its lessened dramatic bruising instead of death. LM does want to address a similar set of issues, but with a better delicacy and streamlined intensity.

It felt well paced, smartly edited, and important. It isn’t the next La Haine, in my opinion, but it was a well moving and well meaning corrupt cop drama. I did take umbrage with the finale though. It felt out of place, unnatural, and perhaps a little antithetical; if one interprets it as a reduction of the disenfranchised into a non-verbal violent mob. I did not care for that odd presentation.