You know you just watched an emotionally powerful movie when there's a significant difference between your emotional states at the beginning and end. Case in point: when I sat down to watch Les Misérables with my friends Maddie and Patrick and Maddie's sister, we were cheerful and excited. When the credits started rolling, I looked to my right to find Maddie curled into a ball in her seat, sobbing - literally sobbing - and as I drove home from the theater, I fought back tears as I belted out Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream." Les Mis certainly evokes a strong reaction in its viewers, although the emotions it draws out, at least for me, aren't particularly lingering or even deep-rooted. They were kind of like the emotional equivalent of indulging in a really fancy desert at a restaurant: a complete release of inhibitions, and maybe something which you haven't done in a while but which makes you feel immensely better afterwards. It's probably not the best thing you could've eaten, but goddamn did you enjoy yourself while you were eating it, and sometimes that's all that matters! Despite all the really depressing stuff that happens in the film, Les Mis is straight-up fun to watch.
Spoilers ahead.
