Many years later, Pip comes into a mysterious fortune – the ‘great expectations’ of the title – and goes off to become a gentleman in London. He fritters away his cash without thought or plan, dragging others down with him and losing sight of the places and the people he came from. The eventual revealment of his mysterious benefactor and the resolution of the convoluted relationships breaks down what little Pip thought he knew of the world, but he finds a sort of redemption through the forgiveness of others.
This latest adaptation is a BBC production with the accompanying top-level British acting talent to match. Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch the convict, Helena Bonham Carter as the disappointed and vindictive Miss Haversham fits like a glove and Robbie Coltrane as the entangled and conniving solicitor Jaggers are the leads to the smattering of familiar faces that make up the cast.
As with any adaptation of classic, lengthy
literature, a lot of the plot is left out or compounded. Personally, I think
that in the case of Great Expectations this can only improve what was an
unnecessarily drawn-out novel, issued as it was by Dickens as chapter-length installments
in a magazine he wrote and published. A movie is a cut-to-the-bone version of
the story and for me, this makes the interminable morbidity and
accent-indulgent works of Dickens vastly improved.
Along with cutting down, the movie-makers
have taken great liberties with the plot, speeding up the action and doling out
endings as they see fit. I understand that changes need to be made to transform
a book into a film, but in this case certain lines of literary decency were
definitely crossed. If I were a Dickens admirer I would likely be horrified, as
I am at overly spliced adaptations of Jane Austin.
As with almost all recent period pieces,
the look of the film is stunning. The moors Pip is raised on are bleak and
beautiful. Satis House and the great decaying wedding feast are a picture of
despair, London is as dank and disease-ridden in which amongst the desperate
and hateful characters, Pip's delightful friend Hubert Pocket (Olly Alexander)
shines. He is one the few light, friendly characters in what is the usual
Dickens dramatis personae of oily money money-grubbers, child-beaters and blackguards.
The decayed grandeur of Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham-Carter).
The corruption of Pip (Jeremy Irvine, about whom I have almost no opinion) is swift and seemingly complete, shown with glaring obviousness in his embarrassment of his uncle and good friend Jo Gargary. In reading the book, Pip is not a loveable character. While you understand his confusion and naivety, you also want to knock him on the head and tell him to make something of himself and stop being such a prat. At least in the film, he has less time in which to be a prat.
Decadent costuming paints a clear picture
of each character. In preparing to travel to London as a 'gentleman' Pip
naively dresses all in white, only to discover that like modern fashion shows,
the London uniform is all black. His transformation into extravagant
gentleman-of-leisure is seen most clearly in his outrageous coat collars as
well as the piles of bills. Equally, from the first moment we see Estella, she
is dressed is riotously extravagant and sumptuous gowns, the Christian LaCroix
of Victorian England, designed to show off her as a tempting jewel to be fought
over. Estella, played beautifully by Holliday Grainger, is a fiery red-head,
which somehow adds to the temptation of her overall appearance. The vile
Bentley Drummle (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), competitor to Pip for the esteem of
Estella, wears layers of coats that were to me reminiscent of bomber jackets
and he has all the swagger and confidence of a flying ace if none of the charm.
It is tempting to say that at heart this
is a love story, and while I suspect Dickens was a bit of an old softie when it
came to romantic endings for his central characters, the plot is much too complicated
and intertwined to break it down to that, as much as this version may make you
think so.
The movie does not have sufficient time to
justify all of the sub-plots and lessons of Dickens, but it tries hard to do
the book justice. If you are a fan of the book I'm not sure I would recommend
the film as it may only make you angry. If like me, you've read Great
Expectations but wouldn't again, certainly spend the 2 hours in a comfy seat
staring at a screen.
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