Les Misérables
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: May 1, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
An honorable and well-acted version of Victor Hugo's classic book bag-buster (not the Broadway musical), a sprawling melodrama whose prodigious length and scope have bedeviled all previous adaptations and hang heavily over this one as well. Read full review
58
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Strip away [Hugo's] sociopolitical rhetoric, and you're left with a simple, heartfelt story. The film directed by Bille August and written by Rafael Yglesias does just that, rendering the plot handsomely. It's far from miserable, but it's not "Miserables," either. [01 May 1998, p.10E]
50
SalonCharles Taylor
At 2 hours and 20 minutes Les Miserables is an unholy slog. It's the sort of movie where, when a title pops up saying, "Ten Years Later," you sink down in your seat certain it's going to be 20 before you get the hell out of there. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
This latest, from director Bille August, is merely respectful and respectable. It never sinks, but it never really soars either, though here and there it hits a powerful moment. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneDavid Baron
It's a dutiful but rarely lively effort, and hardly an inspired one - a film destined, perhaps, to please those unacquainted with earlier and richer cinematic adaptations. [01 May 1998, p.L40]
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Hugo's themes may be timeless, but in this version the viewer is all too aware of the passing time. [04 May 1998, p.81]
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