Les Miserables has had a long-standing reputation of turning people into miserable crying wrecks – as the title of the book/musical/movie suggests. Everywhere I looked there were people gloating – yes gloating – of their experiences of crying so hard that their eyes were burning in pain. Personally, I smugly brushed these comments aside as I knew I would walk out of the theater completely unscathed, ready to critique the film based on the writing, acting, and whatever else I could muster. After all, I’m the kid who didn’t even cry on The Lion King – let alone feel any sort of remorse for it – so what could this movie do to a man with no heart?
It gave me one is what it did. And the pain of suddenly having feelings was all too much for me to handle. Not only did I cry, I cried four times, which was completely unfathomable to me before I sat down for this treacherous movie. How could this happen? I looked around trying to cover the waterfalls coming from my eyes and was blinded by the glisten of tears from everyone else’s faces as well. I was safe. All I could do was continue marveling at the beauty of the movie while laughing at myself for breaking down.
The following are five of the many scenes that struck a chord in my newfound heart. I previously said I had cried only four times and while that remains true, one of the scenes on this list deserves its spot due to how emotionally driven it was. Many of you will be able to predict the list, but I’ll go one step further and try to explain the pools under our feet after watching this movie. The only thing I ask is to refrain from crying just by the mere mention of these tragic scenes.
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