Obsessed

I have this problem with movies.  It goes back as far as I can remember.

I get obsessed.  I get a favorite movie and I watch it over and over and over again.  I just can't get enough.  I'm like an addict.

The first movies I remember getting addicted to were The Ten Commandments (with Charlton Heston) and Gone with the Wind.  I was five.  Yes, five.  And I wondered why I couldn't relate to the other kindergarteners.  What can I say?  I'm an only child.  Don't get me wrong I still watched Today's Special and Mr. Rogers, but I loved me some AMC.

My movie obsessions changed through the years.  There was my Legends of the Fall phase (when I first fell in love with Brad Pitt), my Titanic phase (saw that 9 times in the theatre my sophomore year of high school), and my anything British and/or a period piece phase, which still hasn't ended.  I'm guessing that means it isn't a phase...

And now: Les Miserables.

Oh Les Mis.  I love you.  I've loved you since I saw first saw you on Broadway as a little girl.  I loved you the two times I went back to see you on Broadway after that.  I know every word to your original Broadway cast recording CD.  I secretly wish I could read you in the original French because I am just that much of a geek.  I've watched your PBS anniversary special countless times.  And now you're on the big screen.  I just knew I had to see you on opening night.   You break my heart over and over and over again.  Then you trample on the pieces.  And I love it.  Every single second of it.

Hugh Jackman, you are a great Valjean.  Are you the perfect tenor that Colm Wilkinson was?  No.  Did I care?  Not really.  Maybe during "Bring Him Home," but I got over it real quick.  Russell Crowe,  not bad buddy.  You might have been the weakest voice in the cast, but it worked and I didn't hate your Javert.  I felt bad for him.  Well done.  Anne Hathaway was flawless.  FLAW.  LESS.  Who knew Amanda Seyfried could hit those notes?  I have no idea where Samantha Barks has been hiding. And Eddie Redmayne - I'm in love with you now.  And guess what - you're British.  But, then again, of course you are.  I could go on and on about how much I loved this movie.  How the casting was perfection, the cinematography beautifully done - but, alas, I am no film critic - so I'll spare you all the details.  Just know that it was everything I hoped it would be.

When I saw it Christmas Day you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre.  The audience broke out into thunderous applause at the end even though there were no curtain calls to clap for.  I left the theatre captivated, emotionally exhausted, and contemplated watching it again immediately in the next theatre over.  I pulled it together and went home, but it looks like I'm obsessed.  Again.

How could I not be?  What musical theatre loving, broadway actress wannabe, hopeless romantic wouldn't eat this up:
 

So, who wants to go see it?  I'm dying to go again.

Love you like I love Les Mis,

xoxo

Jenny