A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.
Its glossy looks, first-rate playing and famous pedigree will be cat-nip to book-groupies. But can this dutiful adaptation set the box office burning like Miss Havisham’s skirts?
It’s reasonable as undemanding Sunday afternoon telly, but as a movie event you’d better lower your expectations.
Even with lowered expectations it’s far from great. What a shame.
A watchable adaptation by David Nicholls, but doesn't match the story's passionate fear and rapture.
Great Expectations is about as comfortable as a very fat man sitting in a very small aircraft seat.
Nicholls, it must be said, has done a passionately sincere and skilful job, and if it was all as good as the first 40 minutes – the story of a strange disrupted childhood – it would deserve to rank as one of the great adaptations.
It may lack surprise and freshness but with so much talent involved you certainly won¹t be bored.
Handsome but uninspired.
It’s handsome, involving and stars the cream of British acting talent — but so did Lean’s unbeatable version, and Newell and Nicholls’ safe, schoolteacher-friendly interpretation makes no real case for going down this much-travelled road once more.
Film adaptations of Great Expectations have often lived in the shadow of David Lean’s 1946 version, still considered to be the best to date, and Newell is miles from iterating anything as bracing about Dickensian commentary.
A literal, scene-by-scene translation of the book, with very little of the streamlining undertaken by David Lean for the classic 1946 version. It's a tactic that pays dividends for a while, in that it's a pleasure to see so many of Dickens's characters brought to richly coloured life. But, towards the end, you might as well be reading a synopsis.
Above all, this handsomely designed, unobtrusively edited and thoughtfully acted film moves at quite a clip, reminding us what a fantastic, morally complex, eternally relevant story the book tells us of good and evil, decency and generosity, snobbery and love, of dealing with forces beyond our control, of accepting life and understanding the world.
No mustiness in this quirky, dark revamp, which rips along at a pace while exuberantly embracing Gothic dramatics.
Adapting Great Expectations for the screen
Adapting Charles Dickens for a new audience
General release. Check local listings for show times.