This intense retelling of Dickens' classic was always going to struggle to escape the shadow of David Lean's classic black and white version, featuring that highly memorable opening scene between Pip and Magwitch. That the Magwitch role has been given to Robert DeNiro is typical of this film's ambition; that he is nothing like as scary as Finlay Currie in the original is symbolic of this version's failure to quite overcome the obstacles put in its way. Adding some raunchiness and colour to the story helps, the modern, swampy southern US setting works out OK, even having Miss Haversham transform into a ditzy grand old dame isn't too bad, and the cast is passable throughout. Somehow, though, it just isn't quite there, the story really needs the social structure it satirizes to hold everything together. The admittedly class-ridden society of the modern US is a far simpler structure, one of extreme wealth looking down on extreme poverty, without the added difficulty of ancient breeding structures to overcome. Dickens' Pip could never truly escape his squalid upbringing, as Ethan Hawke does here; modern society could have no problem with him winning his Estella. What it all boils down to is a sad story about a poor kid who gets caught up with a rich tease, with added incidental odds and ends tagged on around, lacking the epic sweep, societal critique and flowing unity of the novel.
Review of Great Expectations
