Misérables is sung out too dry

Reviewed this week: Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper, nationwide, 12A. Rating: 3/5. Gangster Squad, directed by Ruben Fleischer, nationwide, 15A. Rating: 2/5.

Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables.

There's a great moment early on in Tom Hooper's clangorous film of the smash-hit musical Les Misérables, adapted from Victor Hugo's 1862 doorstop novel and seen by millions around the world. Having served 19 years hard labour for stealing a loaf of bread, convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is paroled under licence but is destitute because nobody in France will give a criminal a job.

Wandering starving through the countryside, Valjean falls at ...