Screenwriter Rafael Yglesias pares Victor Hugo’s classic, voluminous tale of grace and redemption into a sharp and exceptionally poignant film. Jean Valjean (Liam Neeson) finds himself paroled after serving 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. On the road to meet his parole officer, an elderly bishop offers him a place to stay for the night. Valjean repays the bishop by stealing his silver. When Valjean is captured, the police bring him back to the bishop, who not only confirms Valjean’s story that the bishop gave him the silverware, but chides Valjean for not taking the silver candlesticks as well. Once Valjean is released, the bishop tells him that he has purchased his soul and given it back to God, that Valjean is a new man. Valjean decides not to report to his parole officer; rather, he goes into hiding, changes his identity, and works his way up to become a successful, benevolent businessman and the upstanding mayor of the little town of Vigo . When inspector Javert (Geoffrey Rush) becomes Vigo ’s new police chief, his vague recollections of the convict Jean Valjean lead him to suspect the mayor of Vigo and his clouded background. In the meantime, the unfair firing and subsequent destitution of an unwed mother from his factory by one of his subordinates compels Valjean to aid the woman and her young daughter. When Javert becomes convinced of the mayor’s true identity, a lifelong chase ensues that pits an officer of the law who believes in the irredeemability of convicts against a man whose graceful living becomes a thorn in the indefatigable and increasingly obsessed mind of his pursuer. Neeson and Rush are exceptional in their lead roles, and Uma Thurman is appropriately sympathetic as the unwed mother Valjean seeks to save.