Then Cosette, now a young woman played by Claire Danes, yearns for freedom Valjean, against his better wishes, takes a house for them. There he and the child, Cosette, spend 10 years. With the unyielding Javert forever at his back, Valjean takes his money and flees to Paris, taking refuge in a convent he had once (foresightedly) given money to. Thurman's performance is the best element of the movie. Valjean discovers her plight (he was unaware of the firing), nurses her through a fatal illness and promises to care for the child. Then fate re-enters his life in the person of Inspector Javert (Geoffrey Rush), a police official who recognizes him from his years at hard labor and wants to expose him: In this world, if you once do something wrong, you are banished forever from the sight of those lucky enough not to have been caught.Ĭonsider, in the same light, poor Fantine (Uma Thurman), fired from the factory and forced into prostitution because it is discovered she has a child out of wedlock. As we rejoin him some years later, he is the local mayor, respectable and beloved, trying to teach himself to read and write.

Valjean sells the silver, gets a job in a provincial factory and uses the nest egg to buy the factory. In one of the most famous episodes from Hugo's novel, the bishop tells the police he gave the tramp the silver, and later tells Valjean: ``I've ransomed you from fear and hatred and now I give you back to God.'' There was a similar scene in Claude Lelouch's 1995 ``Les Miserables,'' which intercut passages from the novel with a story set during World War II it was touching, but this version feels more like a morality play.

Valjean is taken in, fed and sheltered, and tries to steal the bishop's silver. ``I know who you are,'' replies the bishop, but not before the audience has been spoon-fed its briefing. On my passport I am identified as a thief.'' And so on. Liam Neeson stars as Jean Valjean, and the movie makes its style clear in an early scene, where he stands, homeless and hungry, at the door of a bishop, and says, ``I am a convict.

A story filled with outrage and idealism becomes somehow merely picturesque. It contains the moments of high drama, clearly outlines all the motivations, is easy to follow and lacks only passion. ``Les Miserables'' is like a perfectly respectable Classics Illustrated version of the Victor Hugo novel.

1998 les miserables full movie