Les Misérables first screenings – Twitter predicts a best picture Oscar

Director Tom Hooper's adaptation of the musical gets a warm reception from social media users at the first screenings
  
  

Les Miserables
'Got the glums?' … Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean and Anne Hathaway as Fantine in Les Misérables. Photograph: PR

The first cut of Les Misérables, a new screen adaptation of the stage musical from The King's Speech director Tom Hooper, debuted over the weekend at a variety of US venues in special screenings for critics, punters and – most crucially perhaps – awards voters.

The Daily Beast was quick to label it the new front-runner for the best picture Oscar, with critic Marlow Stern saying:

Hooper's film is one of the most joyous, epic experiences you'll have in a cinema this year. It's vaulted past other contenders like Lincoln, Argo, and Silver Linings Playbook in the Best Picture race, and proves that the director's Oscar-winning previous effort, The King's Speech, was no fluke.

The editor of awards site In Contention was similarly effusive.

EW.com's pundit Anthony Breznican sang from the same hymn sheet.

And a chorus of agreement could be heard right across the pond.

• Will you be going to see the Les Miserables film? Or should stage musicals stay on the stage and out of cinemas? What stage musicals have made a successful transition screen? Tell us your thoughts in the comment thread below.

 

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