Movie of the Week: Great Expectations

[jacey]

General verdict - a stellar supporting cast, beautifully filmed with some stand-out moments but maybe not quite as spectacular as I'd hoped for. Helena Bonham Carter's Miss Havisham is excellent and Ralph Fiennes (not an actor I generally warm to) makes a surprisingly good Magwich. Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger as Pip and Estella are very pretty but a teensy bit bland, however Toby Irvine (Jeremy's real life brother) makes an excellent Young Pip. I also liked Jason Flemyng's sympathetic turn as Joe the Blacksmith - he pretty much stole any scene he was in.

Interesting to note that they went for an ambiguous ending which was appropriate, but not entirely satisfying.

H says it's not as good as the 1946 original with John Mills. I can't remember that one in any detail, though I must have seen it on TV many years ago.

Comments

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

Just got home from seeing it. I accidentally went to a showing with subtitles for the hearing impaired. It was kind of distracting (I'm first and foremost a reader, and words get my attention and are hard for me to ignore), but I also picked up some dialogue I would've missed. Interesting.

They sure made Fiennes not look like, yanno, Fiennes most of the time, didn't they?

On the whole, I felt it was time well spent. GE is far and away NOT my favourite Dickens tale (and I have ever been mystified that it's always in contention for 'greatest English novel ever written'), but it was a good adaptation. I enjoyed it, most especially Helen Bonham Carter, which almost goes without saying.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, Helena Bonham Carter was the best thing in it, I think.