Everything in the film, songs included, is cranked to 11, the melodrama of it all soaring. So it's odd that this kind of showboating maximalism should be ultimately reduced to a few fisheye'd faces, mugging for their close-up, as the people sing off-key and broken." "Chicago Tribune" critic Michael Philips gave the film only one and a half stars, writing: "The camera bobs and weaves like a drunk, frantically. So you have hammering close-ups, combined with woozy insecurity each time more than two people are in the frame. ...too little in this frenzied mess of a film registers because Hooper is trying to make everything register at the same nutty pitch." Some specific performances were reviewed very positively. Anne Hathaway's performance of ballad "I Dreamed a Dream" was met with praise, with many comparing its showstopper-like quality to Jennifer Hudson's performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls". Christopher Orr of "The Atlantic" wrote that "Hathaway gives it everything she has, beginning in quiet sorrow before building to a woebegone climax: she gasps, she weeps, she coughs. If you are blown away by the scene—as many will be; it will almost certainly earn Hathaway her first Oscar—this may be the film for you." Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" writes that "The centerpiece of a movie composed entirely of centerpieces belongs to Anne Hathaway, who as the tragic heroine Fantine sings another of the memorable numbers". Joy Tipping of "The Dallas Morning News" described Hathaway's performance as "angelic". Claudia Puig of "USA Today" describes her as "superb as the tragic Fantine". Travers felt that "A dynamite Hathaway shatters every heart when she sings how 'life has killed the dream I dreamed.' Her volcanic performance has Oscar written all over it." Lou Lumenick, critic for "New York Post", wrote that the film is "worth seeing for Hathaway alone". She was widely considered to be the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, ultimately winning it. Eddie Redmayne also received considerable praise for his performance with "Bloomberg News" saying that "Eddie Redmayne—most recently seen as the eager young production assistant in "My Week with Marilyn"—delivers by far the most moving and memorable performance in the film as the young firebrand Marius, who, along with his fellow students, is caught up in France's political upheavals in the 19th century."