Great Expectations

Pretty lead actor but totally lacking the literary marvel of Dickensian English. The BBC can't help but dumb down a lot of their recent content to make it more politically correct and attract the Eastenders audience. The behaviour is by and by that of contemporary people in a 19th century setting and as usual it jarrs.

The film is a decent adaptation based on Charles Dickens's novel, being very fine directed by Brian Kirk. In the movie there's drama, a love story , emotion, tragedies and results to be pretty enjoyable. The TV miniseries deals with an orphan child called Pip (Douglas Booth) meets on the dark moor an escaped convict hiding out in the Victorian English countryside called Magwitch (Ray Winstone) and helps him. A kindness that will change the course of Pip's life, though he doesn't realize it . Magwitch escapes and is aided by young orphan Pip; then Magwitch discovers a fortune. Later on, at a musty mansion Pip meets an old woman, Miss Havershan (Gillian Armstrong), and a beautiful girl called Stella (once grown-up Vanessa Kirby) who has been raised by the eccentric Miss Havershan. Pit suddenly becomes an elegant gentleman with the support of an unknown benefactor and his advocate. But his enemies would like to get Pip's inheritance for themselves . Meanwhile , Pip befriends Herbert Pocket (Harry Lloyd) and Dolge Orlick (Jack Roth). Everything can change in a heartbeat !.

The miniseries in three episodes is an alright adaptation based on Charles Dickens's novel, being pretty well directed by craftsman director Brian Kirk (The day of Jackal (2023), 21 Bridges (2019), Game of Thrones (2011) and Luther (2010)). In the movie there is dramatic events, romance and betrayals, though I has more style than substance. The images and settings are compelling and really luxurious, though the filmmaker should have learned that beauty on the surface isn't all essential. This is a respectable but sometimes slow-moving recounting about notorious novel, being competently performed, splendidly staged with adequate sets, stunning visuals and interesting drama of a well known story . Brian Kirk's professional retelling of Dickens tone but easily dwarfed by the classic 1946 David Lean's version. Well-acted by all , but especially by Gillian Armstrong's slightly pathetic and mad Miss Havishan decided to wreak havoc on the male gender. Douglas Booth's enjoyable acting as starring, he's romantic , friendly , attractive but also vulnerable and memorable. And David Suchet as lawyer Jaggers is top notch, as well as a large and fine secondary cast, such as Jack Roth, Tom Burke, Paul Rhys, Shaun Dooley, Mark Addy, Harry Lloyd, Charlie Creed-Miles, Susan Lynch, Paul Ritter, Perdita Weeks, Frances Barber. Special mention to Ray Winstone as the unknown benefactor who becomes himself a wealthy man with a big fortune, which he decides to use to make good purports. It contains glamorous as well as colorful cinematography by Florian Hoffmeister. Evocative and sensitive musical score by Natalie Holt and Martin Phipps. Rating : 7/10. Above Average . Well worth seeing for Charles Dickens lovers .

There are many adaptations about this famous novel, they turn out to be the following : ¨Great expectations¨ (1934) by Stuart Walker with Phillips Holmes , Henry Hull , Jane Wyatt , Florence Reed. ¨Great expectations¨ (1946) by David Lean considered to be the greatest version of the Charles Dickens novel with impressive black and white cinematography by Guy Green, starring John Mills, Alec Guinness, Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie, Anthony Wager. ¨Great Expectations¨(1974) by Joseph Harvey with Michael York, Sarah Miles, James Mason. ¨Great Expectations¨ (1998) recent rendition by Alfonso Cuarón with Ethan Hawke as Pit , Gwyneth Paltrow as Stella and Anne Bancroft as Miss Havershan, it is deemed average. ¨Great expectations¨ (2012) by Mike Newell with Ralph Fiennes, Ewen Bremner , Olly Alexander , Sally Hawkes , Holliday Grangier, Jason Fleming. And several TV adaptations and miniseries such as : 1981 with Bratford Jones and John Hickson ; 1987 The untold story with John Stanton , Sigrid Thornton , Anne Louise Lambert , 1989 by Kevin Connor with Anthony Hopkins , Jean Simmons , John Rhys Davies , 1999 by Julian Jarrold with Ioan Gruffudd, Justine Waddell, Charlotte Rampling, Bernard Hill .

Outstanding performance of Gillian Anderson.As an ethereal and ghostly Miss Havisham she is still creepy and manipulative.Who would say that "Scully" managed to be such a great actress! Although Douglas Booth is by far much more handsome as Pip would be;his performance is really good.Many critics complained on the actor being such a model!I suppose this is nonsense. Ray winstone is a stupendous Magwitch-all rage and revenge. And Harry Lloyd(who happens to be Dicken's great-great-great-grandson) plays Herbert Pocket exactly as one imagines him to be:the good and always amiable fellow. A great although not perfect(which one is...)adaptation.

I suppose, a noble job, result of good intentions , with some ambition to impress. Not a bad result. Only a seductive story in not , always, proper clothes. But it has the chance to give fair atmosphere and few beautiful to admirable examples of construction of characters.

The mistake - Douglas Booth can be a beautiful Romeo but not the fair Pip. His good intentions are , maybe the main handicap in this sense.

The great good point - Miss Havisham proposed by Gillian anderson. I admitt, Great Expectations is a novel who I love . Miss Havisham is the character who i admire. So, Mrs. Anderson has the inspired art to give new nuances, interesting at whole, to a character who seems so simple to define.

As a Dickens tragic I am well aware that adapting his novels for dramatic performance, whether on stage, TV or on film, will always pose problems, but there have been some triumphant successes. David Lean's being notable, but also the more recent examples: Bleak House -(sublime) and Little Dorrit (brilliant - twice). I have a set of earlier BBC attempts at other Dickens novels on DVD and some of them are toe-curlingly embarrassing - and prove that a good screenwriter is the most important ingredient for success. This production of Great Expectations was good - just. Ray Wintone was born to play Abel Magwitch, and whilst I initially stepped back in amazement at Gillian Anderson's performance as Miss Havisham, I was finally convinced that she was right; her child-like approach fits in with the psychology of a young bride jilted and bitter - excellent. My problems were not particularly with the cast, most of whom were very good, but with the liberties taken with Dicken's plot. The "brothel" scene was unnecessary - why insert "new stuff" when you have left out some old stuff. Much of the dialogue lacked 19th Century authenticity - why tinker about with an aspect of Dicken's writing which has always been seen as one of his greatest strengths? Do the producers think that we are not clever enough to understand? I hope the production of Edwin Drood is better.