Waiting for Les Miserables

I have truly enjoyed only one recent trend on Facebook. Not the election moaning.  Not the Chik-Fil-A debates.  Not even the 30 days of thankfulness in November. (It was sad how many people started strong and then ran out of blessings before the month ended!  After Thanksgiving Day itself, it seemed that most people got distracted by ... other stuff.)

But here's the trend I'm talking about: people confessing they have no idea what Les Miserables is about - neither the book nor the musical.  And, of course, this conversation is prompted by the musical-turned-movie premiering on Christmas day.

Those ignorant of Les Mis seem to know that there is SOMETHING there and that many fans eagerly await the movie, but they are not sure exactly what the draw is.

Some point to the outstanding cast.

Others to the memorable music.  (And even the ignorant recognize the lyrics of "I Dreamed a Dream" and then say, "Oh - I didn't know that's where that song came from!")

But all of that is built on the foundation of a truly great story. 

And by "great" I don't mean just that it's well told, or gripping, or whatever.

It's the greatest fictional story of Christian redemption I have ever come across.

And what surprises me most about what the uninitiated don't know about Les Mis is the fact that it is a story of how God's forgiveness, rightly received, changes the course of one man's life.

How many people are going to walk into the movie theater in the coming weeks to "see what all the fuss is about" only to be hit with a tale of sin, forgiveness, redemption, law and grace?

I am a bit puzzled about how Les Mis has managed to avoid the "Christian" label.  And why I don't hear a peep about any church promoting the movie - like churches have promoted "Christian" movies like "Fire Proof" or "Courageous" in the past. 

Don't get me wrong. I am glad it doesn't carry that baggage.  I'm just curious about how it has avoided it.

Anyway, I got out my DVD of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the musical tonight.  It features a full orchestra and all the stage actors, but only the musical portions of the stage production are performed.  The actors are in costume, but they simply sing the lyrics into microphones lined up on stage. 

I started watching it and the next thing I know The Drama Queen (age 10) is watching intently.  Next, Ida (age 9) finished loading the dishwasher and he's standing and watching it too.  Then, Dats (age 11) comes up from playing video games in the basement and he plops down on the couch and gets pulled in too!  Since all the dialogue was left out, I had to fill them in on developments in the story as we went along.

By the standing ovation at the end of the DVD, all three were asking if they could see the movie when it comes out.  And Dats and Drama Queen were wanting to know if I had a copy of the book. 

I do - but I'm not sure they are ready for it.  It's 1,400 pages! (One of the things that most impresses me about the musical is how it so accurately captures the spirit and sweep of such an epic story even within the limitations of a stage production's space and time frame.)

Since we're not able to go to Haiti in January, this is a nice distraction and the movie's premiere as something to really look forward to...