Great Expectations Reviews

It seems unfair to compare films based on a book to a mini-series based on the same book, or vice versa. Inevitably, there is always one version that is the most beloved and deemed the definitive filmed version of the novel. Any version of Great Expectations is doomed to try to bloom in the shadow of David Lean’s 1946 classic.

This version, which aired in the US on Masterpiece Theater, from 2011 is one that deserves more respect and a fair shake. Sure it suffers from similar problems as other adaptations of Dickens’ novel – bland leads for Pip and Estella being the main cause of concern – but it does take some interesting chances in parts.

On a technical level, this version of Great Expectations lays waste to many competitors. The production and costume design from the tiniest details to the exquisite close-ups are well thought out. Much attention has been paid to make it look real. These are dirty and dusty interiors, rooms and houses that have been lived in for generations that contain secrets. And the costumes are just gorgeous to behold. Miss Havisham’s wedding dress and crony make-up have never been so subtlety progressed before. Normally she arrives as a Grand Guignol madam, and here she is a strangely sympathetic broken woman using a young child to right her personal wrongs and launch a proxy vendetta.

And for covering so much expansive ground in so brief a time, three episodes that clock in at an hour each, the plot moves along relatively smoothly. The various characters and story strands merge and tear only to be mended as best they can. I wanted to spend a longer amount of time in this world, despite as well-known as it has become, because of the impressive technical aspects and the attention paid to the letter of the text. While I have never been a great fan of Dickens’ wandering prosaic style, I do appreciate that this series tried valiantly to keep as much of the immense scope intact as possible.

Yet it’s such a shame that we’re stuck with the pretty but bland Douglas Booth as Pip. I never believed in him as the naïve love struck son of a blacksmith. He’s far too delicately beautiful, with large brown eyes and soft pillowy lips that make him look a better fit for a model than a tortured young lover who must pick the pieces of his shattered dreams back up and move on. And Vanessa Kirby didn’t make much of an impression on me as Estella, a crucial bit of casting. I never felt the tortured, complicated fiery emotions within her, but she’s never bad, just decent enough. However, other casting choices are top notch. Ray Winstone as Magwitch is terrifically rugged and brusque. Harry Lloyd is an endearing and entertaining Herbert Pocket, and I wonder what would happen is Booth and Lloyd had switched parts? But I was most impressed with Gillian Anderson’s Havisham, a controversial choice on my part. Much of the critical response is split on whether or not she was a great fit for the part, arguing that she was too old or too sedate. But I found her to age appropriate for the role given that Havisham is described as being closer to middle-age than an elderly woman. And I found her sedate, disturbingly calm way to talking to be an effective mask for the bitter hurt and madness lurking underneath, things which she slowly lets slip out over time.

While I don’t think that David Lean’s film version has any reason to worry about this one taking its top spot, this version of Great Expectations is still damn fine in its own way. A solidly constructed period piece that closely adapts a classic novel with high production values and a (mostly) solid cast, what’s not to like?