Authentic but somehow uninvolving
Written: Oct 12 '05 (Updated Mar 04 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Victorian England accurately represented, overall good cast and performances
Cons: A couple of technical quirks, somehow I just didn't feel involved with the movie
The Bottom Line: A good adaptation of the Dickens novel, but not brilliant.
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| captaind's Full Review: Oliver Twist (2005) |
Oliver Twist is acclaimed Director Roman Polanski’s version of the much-loved Charles Dickens book of the same name. I don’t actually recall having seen any of Polanski’s films before but I do recall everyone who’s ever seen one describing them as bleak (though often brilliant), so I was prepared for this film also being bleak. (And perhaps brilliant.)
Bleak it is indeed, but then that accurately portrays the lot of the working / lower class in Victorian (or should I say Dickensian?) England. As almost everyone on the planet will already know, Oliver Twist is an orphan, growing up first in a parish, then a workhouse, then proceeding to a small household and eventually ending up in London, where he falls in with a local gang of child thieves. These “work” for the shady character Fagan, an old man who loves money and not much else. An accomplice of Fagan is Bill Sykes, who is not just a criminal but a very violent criminal. His partner (I’ve never quite been sure if she was meant to be his wife or not) Nancy lives in fear of him and seems to love him in a way, but despises the lifestyle that he and Fagan – and by extension herself – have come to be in.
Having known no-one who cares about him in his whole life, Oliver seems destined to join them in a life of crime… until… well, you can find that out for yourself (though if you’ve read the book or seen the musical you will of course already know!)
There are many fine actors amongst the cast of this version, but the only really star name is Ben Kingsley, who plays Fagan. He gives a fine performance though at times I felt he was slightly over the top, and the fact that part of me expected him to burst into song with “You’ve got to pick a pocket or two” every so often was a bit distracting! Young Barney Clark as Oliver puts in an outstanding performance, and it’s easy to empathise with him not just because he always seems to be being mistreated by one or more horrible people but also because you can really believe his reaction to these injustices. Some of the child actors are a bit too theatrical in their performances, not in every scene but enough to slightly detract from the overall believability. Leanne Rowe gives a sensitive performance as Nancy, while Jamie Foreman is extremely easy to hate as the violent and angry Sykes. The other standout performance were by Edwin Hardwicke as Mr Brownlow, who becomes Oliver’s benefactor… for a time, anyway…
The atmosphere is certainly pretty oppressive and realistic, and the story seems to keep quite closely to the book. There were a couple of slight technical problems, i.e. one very badly cut transition and a couple of scenes where the actors looked very obviously like they were walking in front of a projected image, but overall it was pretty good. The storyline was good even though it has the slight disadvantage that it all seemed very familiar. There’s nothing much wrong with this movie but I felt strangely unmoved by it all, and some of the scenes did seem to drag. My wife, who evidently felt more involved with the story than I did (in was in floods of tears by the ending!) liked it more than I did but also said is was nothing really special. So I’m giving it 3 stars with a recommendation.
Though it’s only rated PG-13 (PG in the UK), I wouldn’t advise it at all for younger children, certainly not for 8 and under. One or two scenes would be really upsetting for them and I think overall the film doesn’t contain a lot for children to enjoy. The people most likely to enjoy this film are in fact adults who like Dickens’ work.
Not a bad film by any means, but not a great one either. The runtime of 130 minutes actually felt rather longer than that.
Related Links
Ben Kingsley as starred as evil baddie “The Hood” in Thunderbirds
Jeremy Smith (Mr Bumble) played “Arthur” in Gosford Park
Harry Eden (the Artful Dodger) played “Nibs” in Peter Pan
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See Also
Top Ten Films of 2005
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Recommended:
Yes
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