Preamble
Dontcha just hate it when you hear a ton of praise about a particular film and then once you see it, you wonder if you and those other people saw the same movie? That's the way I'd describe my experience with Nicholas Nickelby. People called it "charming", "delightful", "feel-good". I call it, "depressing", "boring", and a "waste" of my time.

The Story
The Nickelby's - Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam), Kate (Romola Garai), mother (Stella Gonet), father (Andrew Havill) - are a content family who live in the countryside of England. Through a series of investments, the family becomes destitute and once their father dies, they travel to London to seek out the assistance of his brother, Ralph (Christopher Plummer).

Now Ralph is your typical, greedy, and wealthy businessman. He has no time for insignificance - like say - the love of a family. His brother's brood is nothing more than a bother. Grudgingly, he agrees to help them. He sends Nicholas off to work for a boys boarding school under the direction of the evil Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent) and the inhumane Mrs. Squeers (Juliet Stevenson).

While at the boarding school, Nicholas happens upon young Smike (Jamie Bell). Smike, who used to be a student at the school, has been turned into the Squeers' personal slave because neither of his parents have come to claim him.

Meanwhile, young Kate and her mother are living paycheck to paycheck, as dressmakers. Uncle Ralph though, can't help but exploit his niece, putting her in situations where she has to ward off the advances of older, creepy men.

After Nicholas breaks away from the evil Squeers, he comes back to face his uncle. A man of character would have never done what Ralph has done to the Nickelby family.

While trying to get his family back on their feet, Nicholas once again, runs into a beautiful, young woman - Madeline Bray - (Anne Hathaway) who makes his heart flutter.

Does Nicholas pursue the love of his life?

Does Nicholas save his family from the evilness of his uncle Ralph?

The Scoop
This poor film - it's such a mess! The blame for this lays squarely on the shoulders of writer/director Douglas McGrath. I didn't mind too much how he had adapted Emma to the big screen but for some reason, when he tried this with Nicholas Nickelby, he failed to capture what drew me to it in the first place.

I don't know if he butchered the screenplay to pieces or if it was his failure as a director that made this a mess. The end result is that the film seemed to mock the main character while at the same time, providing us with no motivation of any of the main players. To some extent, it was like a series of Saturday Night Live skits, minus the humor.

Charlie Hunnam, a Heath Ledger look-a-like, is part of the reason why I didn't fall asleep over the course of the film. I first caught him in the short lived tv series, Undeclared and as I understand it, he appeared in the British version of Queer As Folk. Charlie is definitely charming as Nicholas and his righteous indignation that was present throughout the entire film wasn't too over the top. Probably his best contribution to this movie was that he was able to create and maintain chemistry with almost every character he was in a scene with.

Anne Hathaway who I loved in The Princess Diaries had more or less, one facial expression throughout the entire film. Ugh. Unfortunately for her, the hair and makeup people made her up so that her nose stuck out like a sore thumb. Between her appearance and her one facial expression, she might as well have called in her performance.

Several other big name actors - Alan Cumming, Juliet Stevenson, Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer, and Jim Broadbent - were greatly wasted. Mr. McGrath seemed to use them as expensive decoration in his movie.

The true gem of the film was the team of Timothy Spall and Gerard Horan as the tweedle dee-tweetle dum characters - Charles and Ned Cheeryble. Although they didn't appear in the film until the second half, their presence was a ray of sunshine.

The End
Nicholas Nickelby is rated PG for thematic material involving some violent action and a childbirth scene. The childbirth scene is like two seconds long and I have to question the MPAA's thought process on why it was so "PG" like. The violence is the beating of children so for some that can be a bit disturbing.

I wouldn't recommend that you watch this movie - unless you're a fan of one of the main actors - or - you'd like to understand how to completely butcher a Charles Dickens book.

Recommended:
No