1812, England. The young orphan Pip, who lives in the countryside with her sister's family , after giving food to a fugitive which is then recaptured by the guards, is summoned to the residence of a rich lady. She lives without ever looking at the sunlight after a sentimental trauma and wants Pip to play along with another girl, Estella, who lives in the castle of which he falls madly in love. Decades later Pip will be informed that an unknown benefactor will take care of him and he has to go to London to become a gentleman. It will be in the big city , once accepted the new status, where the many mysteries will begin to be revealed. Mike Newell, director of Four Weddings and a Funeral ( and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) adapts a script author of One Day ( book and film) from " Great Expectations " by Charles Dickens. The melange of styles , influences, personal inclinations and strengths of each of the heads that have made possible this new Great Expectations is aimed at classical and faithful rendition of the book but ends up taking a turn more romantic than historical , more centered on the stories love ( that of Pip and Estella to Miss Havisham that ended badly ) and personal relationships ( the bromance deep and emotional between Pip and the blacksmith Joe Gargery ) rather than the interweaving of the plot, the action of the final or contrast among the many classes that were being consolidated in England in the first half of 800 . The Jeremy Irvine's Pip , however, is not an ambitious climber as in the book but more an astonished witness to the horrors of the fashionable upper classes . Newell removes the voice-over that adaptations in the past had often translated the first-person narrative of the book and move a few episodes from forward to reverse over time while remaining very faithful to the book as a whole, it contains the most important phrases along with large chunks . What crease instead is what he does best , i.e. telling lightly ( and apparently without giving importance ) the way in which feelings affect the actions of the characters . Everything that happens in his Great Expectations is caused by an exaggerated sentimentality (both infinite gratitude , a deep hatred , dignity incorruptible or a undying love ) , also plans warps with more mathematical calculation , but this is never the center of the film, as a natural order of things that rule life. Without providing scenes of great impact ( like the one where Pip let the light into the decadent residence to free Estella Havisham , closing the large version of the 1946 David Lean ) this latter recurrence , because of its sentimental push, aims more on the landscapes and characters, like photography and acting, focusing on the actors and the places in which they are added to give a new meaning to an old story. The result is a great illustration and a small film. There are some of the most significant places in which two sincere friends can rest caressed by the wind , dark fortresses of cobwebs from which sprout angelic faces and crannies of the city of fetid wood ready to become the metropolis of steel, but the story is weak and the dynamism the book is lost in the continuous chase dismayed faces of the actors rather than the many twist of history.
Overall an enjoyable movie, very well acted and beautifully shot. (p.s. you will definitely enjoy it more if you haven't read the C. Dickens book)
Overall an enjoyable movie, very well acted and beautifully shot. (p.s. you will definitely enjoy it more if you haven't read the C. Dickens book)