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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Let's Rush To Judgment: 'Les Miserables'

Well, this is certainly not a timid way to put out your first trailer.

Anne Hathaway's performance of "I Dreamed A Dream" (not a Susan Boyle original!) is the centerpiece of the first trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Les Miserables directed by Tom Hooper (who also did The King's Speech). This invites everyone to focus on what is likely to be a soft spot in the film: Hathaway can sing and has sung in other things, but she is not a Broadway belter, and her singing has already led to some mutterings.

On the other hand, musicals have always left room for people who are not great technical singers but can deliver music in a way that's affecting. (Consider Rex Harrison. Or, if you like, Gertrude Lawrence.)

I must admit that while the performance doesn't make me want to buy the record or anything, it does make me believe Hathaway can nail the sadness of Fantine. So, incidentally, does my memory of her remarkable performance she gave in Rachel Getting Married.

What do you think?

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.