Director Éric Besnard tackles Jean Valjean, a character (Grégory Gadebois) that appears in enough adaptations of Les Miserables. His imperfect yet fresh-ish take focuses on the book’s earlier chapters when he’s fresh out of forced labour. Travelling throughout France by foot, he hears constant rejection – “there is nothing for you here,” not even food. That is, with the exception of a priest, Bienvenu Myriel (Bernard Campan), offering a seat on his table. The film flashes back to Jean’s prison labour stint, a time so traumatic that makes him almost kind proof.

This film isn’t just a second spotlight on Myriel – it widens that scope to capture his close household. It contrasts him against his maid, Madame Magloire (Alexandra Lamy), who is paranoid that Jean is a thief. In a way, Jean Valjean shows that she’s not wrong, as it replicates his gaze, reflecting omnipresent temptation. It shows Magloire packing up Myriel’s silverware, silverware that Jean can just steal, and that money can help him. Characterizations like this make me feel ambivalent but presenting infighting within the working and incarceree classes are plausible.

As much as Jean Valjean‘s whittled down characters are interesting, the visual elements are quite inconsistent here. There are also some Jean Valjean scenes that I can’t place either from previous adaptations and the book itself. Like did Jean really imagine killing Myriel, because it seems like a deviation from memories of the novel. But thankfully, once again, the film gives its viewers a Bienvenu flashback, steering us to the right path. During that flashback, he has a conversation about the 1789 French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Good people don’t just start out good – a truism about Bienvenu, Jean, as well as people in real life.