One of the weakest, perhaps the weakest, adaptations of a good if not great book(Prince and the Pauper and Tom Sawyer, also by Mark Twain, thrill me much more though and are more accessible). And that is when judged on its own. The charming costumes and sets, Royal Dano's credibly delivered Mark Twain- though his presence wasn't really needed-and especially Jack Elam's lively performance are the only things that redeem Huckleberry Finn just a little. Everything else is a bit of an embarrassment to be honest with you. Rance Howard does his best but is far too restrained for a character that requires the opposite and the supporting characters are just dull and suffer from underwritten characters and non-existent development to them. Even worse were the performances of Ron Howard and Donny Most, that they are too old for their roles is one thing but the energy, innocence and resourcefulness that shape the characters of Huck and Tom are completely lost, instead they are rather lumbering and patronising. The relationship between Huck and Jim is even more interesting in the book and other adaptations, but bad characterisation and atmosphere made it nowhere near believable enough, there is not the sense that they care for one another and at no point can you relate to them or their friendship. But the worst part about this adaptation of Huckleberry Finn was that it never came to life. The direction is soggy, while the pacing is so ponderous it severely dilutes the adventure, nostalgia and thrills that makes Huckleberry Finn worth the read. The story is also over-simplified to the extent that it is not very easy to completely comprehend and everything, including the clumsily adapted dialogue, just feels banal when the characterisation and atmosphere is so diluted. The presence of the narrating of Mark Twain wasn't necessary, it didn't allow the story to speak for itself and it distracted rather than added to anything. The photography is not necessarily amateurish, but it looks as though little energy or enthusiasm was put into it, reminiscent of very simplistic TV quality. All in all, soggy, dull and banality of of the quite bad kind. A few decent things here and there but much of it is disappointingly poor, the 1974 musical and 1993 Elijah Wood adaptations were not perfect but they are much better than this. 3/10 Bethany Cox
Review of Huckleberry Finn
