Lucybespro
It is a performances centric movie
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Derry Herrera
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
bkoganbing
Going back over the years it seems that every generation gets a new version of
Great Expectations . We can't seem to get enough of telling of Charles Dickens's
coming of age novel. In this version the brothers Toby and James Irvine playing
different ages of Philip Pirrup, shortened to Pip our protagonist hero.Pip's an orphan kid brought up by his sister Sally Flemyng and her husband blacksmith Joe Gargery played by Jason Flemyng and a random act of kindness feeding escaped
convict Magwitch played by Ralph Fiennes brings him unseen benefits. A
change in lifestyle as he now lives like a gentleman. He can also aspire to court
the haughty Estella played by Holiday Grainger. As her very strange guardian Miss Havisham has brought her up, she's to reek
vengeance on the male of the species.. Helena Bonham-Carter and that's been
a great part for character actresses. Left at the altar by the man she loved,
Miss Havisham is the last word in warped. I wonder who in real life Charles
Dickens took as his model for her.As it goes young Pip has been believing certain things in his life and based his
life on false assumptions. In the end he's happy, but he's got quite a reality
check in store for him.Another ten to twenty years there will be another version of Great Expectations. We don't seem to tire of the tale.
Roy Benari
Apart from Jason Flemyng, who's doing a marvelous job, as always, and Ewen Bremner, who is descent as Wemmick, mostly terrible casting choices and poor portray of the characters. Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham? Please...Not to mention the poor, rushed script, which lacks crucial parts of the story (such as the odd man in the pub who gave Pip the two pound notes), It feels like Newell is trying too hard to make of the film to be too many things it's not, and was never meant to be (such as a love story). This movie was like Pip's great expectations - it came with high hopes, but unfolded into nothing.
l_rawjalaurence
Thematically speaking, Mike Newell's GREAT EXPECTATIONS depicts a world in which money talks: where rich n'er-do-wells such as Bentley Drummle (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) manage to find the girls of their choice, while fundamentally good people such as Pip (Toby/ Jeremy Irvine) end up unlucky. To survive in this world, Pip has to shed his humanity; this is especially evident in his offhand treatment of Joe Gargery (Jason Flemyng), when the blacksmith comes to visit him in London. Likewise Estella (Helena Barlow/ Holliday Granger) is brought up in a world where any display of emotion or human feeling is considered weak; hence she believes it is her destiny to marry Bentley, even though the couple are not in love with one another. The quintessential representative of this rapacious world is Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane), who believes that everything - including human beings - are to be bought and sold for money. Hence Joe Gargery should be happy to accept twenty-five guineas in exchange for Pip. Unless you've got money, you'll not have any Great Expectations. Newell's film is also very good at depicting the relationships between Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) - although somewhat young for the role, Bonham Carter comes across as a fundamentally vindictive person, who enjoys playing with Estella and Pip's feelings in revenge for her own frustrations at being jilted on her wedding-day several years previously. As with most BBC- inspired costume dramas, the sense of place is beautifully evoked, even though Jim Clay's production designs; nineteenth-century London is a teeming, threatening world in which self-interest prevails. This is contrasted with the rural Kent coast where Joe and his sister (Sally Hawkins), a lonely world of sprawling landscapes and russet sunsets. Perhaps the only criticism that might be leveled at this adaptation is the fact that David Nicholls' screenplay runs out of steam somewhat: the plot-details are rather hurriedly wrapped up in the last half-hour at the expense of characterization and atmosphere. This is a shame, as it deflects out attention from the developing relationship between Pip and Abel Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes), which proves beyond doubt that compassion is far more significant than money to ensure human survival.
Hot 888 Mama
. . . or maybe it's incest that wins out here. This version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS has so many head-spinning rewrites that it's hard for even someone who's read the book thrice for school and then seen all the previous movie adaptations to remember which parts of this version are by novelist Charles Dickens and which are inventions of screenwriter David Nicholls. As presented here, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is a French farce without the funny business. The same dozen people take turns being each other's parents, lovers, children, spouses, and murderers. Their constant role switching demands more head swiveling on the part of viewers than that required of tennis fans at a center court match. But the acting is wonderful here, the ironies are rich, the sets-costumes-score impeccable, and half the cast and crew of Harry Potter pop up by the close of this story. What's not to love?
