GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1998)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
For most people in today's world the only way to become familiar with great works of literature is through films. Unfortunately, most of literature classics are set in distant time periods and that makes their screen adaptations too expensive or too incomprehensible for audience. Hollywood often tried to circumvent that by changing setting of the novels, sometimes with great success. GREAT EXPECTATIONS, 1998 screen version of famous novel by Charles Dickens, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, wasn't among the successful ones.
Scriptwriter Mitch Glazer changed Dickens' original 19th Century English setting with present-day America. The plot starts in 1970s Florida where 11-year old orphan Finnegan Bell (played by Jeremy James Kissner) lives with her sister's boyfriend Joe (played by Chris Cooper). Finnegan's hobby is painting and one day, while seeking inspiration, he stumbles into escaped convict Arthur Lustig (played by Robert De Niro) and helps him to break from shackles. Some time later Joe takes Finnegan to the estate of Ms. Nora Dinsmore (played by Anne Bancroft), richest woman in Florida who went mad after her fiance had left her thirty years ago. The only company for mad woman in her castle are cats and her 10-year old niece Estella (played by Racquel Baudene). Many years later Estella (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) goes to Paris, while Finnegan (played by Ethan Hawke) becomes a fisherman. Letter from mysterious benefactor brings Finnegan to New York and allow him to pursue his dream of artist career. There Finnegan becomes successful but encounter with Estella, who is about to marry rich Walter Plane (played by Hank Azaria), reminds him that he always loved her.
Original novel dealt primarily with themes of growing up and overcoming class limits, while the romance was nothing more than a sideshow. Unfortunately, Mitch Glazer, just like in disastrous SCROOGED, shows inability to spot the most important and most universal elements of Dickens' text. The script almost exclusively concentrates on the romance, with other subplots being untouched or, at times, rather unbelievable. Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (who would later become famous with Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) doesn't pay much attention to the script and instead concentrates on keeping audience's attention with splendid visuals. This is successful in the first part of the film that takes place in Florida, but not in the second part that takes place in New York and drowns itself in sentimental cliches. On the other hand, GREAT EXPECTATIONS benefits from very talented cast, especially Gwyneth Paltrow in one of her most icy and most erotic incarnations. Anne Bancroft also leaves good impression as pathetic woman-scarecrow. Although watchable, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is far below the standards of David Lean's 1946 classic version. For all those who wanted adaptation worthy of literary classic expectations weren't met.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Review written on March 25th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society
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