Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

That has always been my favorite part.

And the movie did not disappoint.

I waited several days to see Les Miserables for a couple reasons:

1. I was worried about Anne Hathaway
2. I wanted a little bit of the hype to die before I walked in to have my experience. It wasn't about excitement for me--but for experience.

Because it was an experience. The movie ended and my roommates immediately started to grab and their stuff and stand up. And this is where I start to have a panic attack---amidst my efforts to remember how to move and what my own name is---I didn't go over the movie-watching-experience rules with Andrea and Lauren. It so wasn't their fault.

I do not move after seeing a movie such as the one we just saw. And I don't want anyone to tell me to move. I do not speak. And I don't want to be asked any questions. Particularly the one that goes, "so what'd you think??" Like it was some trivial something that will be forgotten in 5 minutes. Like it was something that I could produce a fully-formed, logical and structured opinion on within seconds. My blog readers know these rules... but the roommates did not. When they noticed I had not moved at all when they had stood, they say back down to wait.

And I simmered. Because that is what you do. You have to soak it in---mind blank. You listen to the music and watch the credits and you just process for a while. Until you are ready to stand.

And then you stand, and you leave, and you do not say a word.

Les Miserables is a very personal story. Many, many people have a very private connection to the show, the story, the book, the music, the whole concept. It is about humanity and God and people and love and sacrifice and it is entirely relatable and tragic and beautiful. It's like Marius says so correctly in his weary solo: "there's a grief that can't be spoken..." It's hard to describe how people feel about this show. Despite knowing the musical word for word (and almost mouthing it all, breathlessly, throughout the movie), I can't say that I love it or appreciate it more than the average person. Even though I had tears in my eyes from the second the music started out of pure nostalgia---I can't say it's a part of me more than anyone else can.

And that is amazing. We all share it. It's a reverent thing, almost. And I love that we can connect in such a story of hope and Christianity.

As a sophomore in high school and a member of the large ensemble in our production of Les Mis, I used to sit in the audience during rehearsal and just stare. I couldn't believe that I was a part of something so amazing. I wanted to share is with everyone I knew. I used to fall asleep to the finale track. And when we performed our show, we sang the last strains of "Do You Hear the People Sing," and we would all be crying too, along with the audience, and then the lights would go out, and it would be over, and we would scramble to the hallways to greet our friends and family, hoping that the story we had just told would have the same effect on them that it had had on us. It was partially because of the applause and the joys or performing, but overwhelmingly is was because of the music and story. And it is something I will never forget.

And so, besides the emotion and feeling and story and the triumph of it all, this is what I take away from the movie:
1. It is much more religious than I had ever realized. Somehow.
2. Javert may be the one who is to be the most pitied.
3. Anne Hathaway really, really did an amazing job. I have no complaints about her performance. I might have to start liking her now.
4. Marius is such a man.
5. Russell Crowe's face is too nice for Javert. But maybe they did that on purpose.
6. What would have been Act 1 had this been on the stage was much more emotional for me than Act 2, which is an interesting twist. I'm usually in the most pain around the barricade.

I will see it again. But probably not for a while. I don't know if it is a movie I will own. It seems like watching it on my own TV will cheapen it somehow.

And so Andrea and Lauren, that is what I thought.