Great Expectations

It seems like every year we get a new film based on the classic take by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations. There are so many versions, it is pointless to make another one. Apparently people disagreed though as we have another update, this time starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. I adored the 1998 version even though it was critically panned. I cannot say the same about this movie. The performances were excellent and it has a majestic scope, but the narrative is just a little uneven for my taste.

By now, we should all know the plot to the film. But in case this was someone's first big-screen adventure into the story, Mike Newell's film is about a boy named Pip who is given a chance at a gentleman's life in London thanks to a mysterious benefactor.

As said before, the film does have excellent performances namely by our two British veterans in Carter and Fiennes. Carter makes an excellent Miss Havisham and she is delightfully weird, just like in most Tim Burton movies. Fiennes also gives all he got as the convict Pip meets in the beginning. Jeremy Irvine, known for his role in War Horse, does a solid job and same goes for Holliday Granger as Estella, Pip's romantic interest. I also thought Jason Flemying was excellent as Joe, and the scenes between Joe and Pip were quite powerful.

Overall, the latest Great Expectations remake tries it very best to succeed thanks to the lavish production design and it excellent performances, but it fails to live up to previous films. It is certainly not bad, but it doesn't bring anything new to the table. That being said, it still is good to watch. They do a good job in recreating nineteenth century London and the countryside. It shows how different life was compared to today. Not a bad film, but not a great one either. Perhaps no more adaptations in the near future, studios. I rate this film 7/10.

Before the review starts I must say that it might be a little biased. Coming from another country, before I saw the movie I had never heard of the book (maybe the title once or twice in a different translation) or any of the movie adaptations. For everyone else I suspect it wasn't as interesting as it was to me.

The movie is about a boy, Pip, who gets in the possession of some money and coming from a poor background, goes on to become a gentleman in London.

The movie is filled with a very well-known cast, e.g. Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). As seen from previous movies, everyone delivers a remarkable performance, especially Carter with the wounded character of Miss Havisham (there's a good twist around the end involving her). Another great stand out was Holliday Grainger in the role of Estella. I loved her, and will be definitely looking at what projects she chooses in the future. It was a nice surprise when she appeared in Anna Karenina (2012), and although just for a couple of seconds, she played her part there very well too.

The story, although I've never heard of it, is a classic. It's handled very well, and the love story too. Two people that were never meant to be together. Even though Estella is trying to push Pip away, Pip always comes back. There is definitely chemistry between the two.

The sets and costumes were another high point of the movie. The women's wear in particular worked very well for the time period in which the story is set. The depiction of 1980s London was very graphic and very well done. Nothing seemed CGI, and all the sets looked very realistic.

Every movie has a flaw, and nearly every time it's the pace. The movie did slow down around the middle, after Pip arrives in London and settles down. Not much happened.

I recommend this to most movie fans looking for a good drama. Fans of the story will probably dig the new adaptation too. Enjoy.

Acting - 10/10 Costumes - 10/10 Pace - 8/10 Sets - 10/10

Overall - 9/10

Far from a terrible film but rather disappointing too, seeing as this did have a lot going for it. Plus the trailer actually looked really good. There are certainly some good things, even when a film or series doesn't quite work there are not many times where there is nothing redeeming about it. This Great Expectations does have a fair few merits and the best of these merits actually come off quite well. The costumes and sets are both beautiful and evocative, and the reuniting of Pip and Estella has some very clever lighting, there is great atmosphere and poetry in this moment. The music is haunting, is fitting for the tone of the film and doesn't overbear things too much. The opening scene is very atmospherically effective also, though the adaptation that did this scene best and quite possibly without equal is David Lean's.

And while the acting is inconsistent, there are some very good performances, and actually most of the performances fall into the very good category. The star was Ralph Fiennes, his Magwitch was both creepy and tragic, in the earlier scenes Fiennes is chilling but later on he is very likable and you feel pity for the character. Helena Bonham Carter really gives her all to Miss Havisham, wonderfully bitter and dramatic, if physically a little too on the voluptuous side for a character that is described the complete opposite in the book. Jason Flemying is an excellent and dignified Joe, Robbie Coltrane is firm and somewhat larger than life as Jaggers and Olly Alexander's Herbert Pocket is eccentric and quaint as well as earnest and upbeat, a very engaging performance of a potentially dull character.

Jeremy Irvine looks the part for Pip but his acting style came across as too overwrought and too innocent, while Holly Grainger looks radiant but not cold enough for Estella. They are marginally better than the miscast leads in the respectable but flawed 2011 BBC adaptation, but only just. David Walliams mugs his way through the role of Uncle Pumblechook and painfully so, it may work for Little Britain but it is completely wrong here. Toby Irvine and Helena Barlow are very competent and work well together, if lacking that extra spark to make them truly memorable, Barlow also could have a little more spiteful.

Aside from these problematic casting choices there are other reasons why this adaptation of Great Expectations fell short. It is a very difficult story to adapt, Dickens generally is difficult to adapt, but the story is not very engaging here, though there are some bright spots like the opening scene. The pacing can get tedious while some of the details are rushed through and under-explained, the Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham scenes veer towards the absurd rather than the tense and the scenes between Irvine and Holliday don't have that much pulse. The ending is also very badly bungled.

The script can get rather trite and wordy with some awkward tonal shifts. And while the period detail is great and there are moments where the lighting is clever, the way the film looks is rather too grim, too much of the Harry Potter and Tim-Burton-at-his-most-Gothic vibe. Mike Newell does deserve some credit for bringing out the story's dark approach but too often it is too emphasised so the film generally lacks life, and consequently the dark obsession that is at the heart of this great story comes across as rather flat. Overall, a long way from bad but not as great as it could have been, personally this was a mixed feelings sort of reaction towards the film. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Great Expectations is one of my favorite novels and I have seen every screen adaptation to date. None has made more impact on me than the David Lean version. I was so looking forward to Mike Newell's version which seemed to have the perfect casting. I was though quite disappointed. Granted that it is very difficult to tell this story in a couple of hours of screen time, but that is no excuse for making a film which rushes through the events in the book without providing sufficient depth of the characters and motivation for their actions for the audience to feel empathy with them. Such a story deserves a longer screen time or alternatively cut out some of the secondary characters and provide more focus on the main characters. The film has a very "Harry Pottery" look which is no surprise since Newell made one of the films in that series. Performances are generally fine, with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter predictably stealing the main honors.

it has a special beauty. far to be perfect, far to be convincing at whole, it has the science to use the kitsch and the light, the dialog and the details in wise manner. and that performance is its high virtue. old stereotypes - Helena Bonham Carter using Tim Burton recipes, remarkable parts - Jeremy Irvine as one of the most good Pip and the nuances of Magwitch by Joseph Fiennes, the crumbs of sentimentalism and the air of novel does it more than a correct adaptation. a beautiful film in profound sense. for the romanticism, for the links between characters, for the inspired way to tell the story. sure, nothing spectacular. sure, almost nothing new. but useful for remember the spirit of a great novel.