Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie Review

Expect goodness, if not outright greatness.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 1, 2014

It may not rise to exactly the same level of hubris that Gus Van Sant displayed when he decided to “reshoot” Alfred Hitchcock’s immortal Psycho, but certainly director Mike Newell probably had a moment or two of concern as he anticipated offering audiences a new version of another immortal work, Charles Dickens’ timeless Great Expectations, especially when cineastes the world over would be waiting with talons poised should the memory of David Lean’s highly respected 1946 film version of the novel be sullied. Despite a rather varied filmography that includes such beloved “Brit-coms” as Four Weddings and a Funeral, crime thriller Donnie Brasco, and even Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Newell was nonetheless coming off the less than spectacular Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time just before Great Expectations, something that might have hobbled the director’s self confidence if not his ultimate craftsmanship. Worriers (which frankly may have included Newell himself) probably need not have concerned themselves, for this Great Expectations has a lot to commend it, including splendid ensemble acting work and a lush but grimy evocation of 19th century England, one that is markedly different from the perhaps overly pristine account of the era shown in the Lean film. That said, this is far from a perfect Great Expectations, one which tends to (understandably) telescope Dickens’ immense novel into a more manageable if less emotionally fulfilling “greatest hits” series of anecdotes. Interestingly, one of Newell’s fellow directors in the Harry Potter franchise, Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), also tackled Great Expectations in 1998, albeit in a highly divergent form which placed the story in late 20th century New York and also had the temerity to change several major characters’ names in the process. If Newell’s approach is decidedly more faithful to Dickens’ original concept, even at two hours- plus, it’s missing some of the nuance and fullness which helped to inform another adaptation that actually premiered just slightly before this film hit theaters, the television miniseries Great Expectations, which aired in the United States on PBS.

Great Expectations has been assigned reading for countless generations of schoolchildren through the years, myself among them. Several of Dickens’ novels were assigned by one of my teachers as what might be thought of as a palette cleanser after denser fare like Thomas Hardy. In a way, Great Expectations delivers two of the great Dickens tropes—that of the orphan child on a quest for identity, and of the redemptive power available to even the most hard hearted—and reweaves them in one of the author’s most memorable tales. Young Pip (Toby Irvine) is visiting the grave of his mother when he’s accosted by the very scary (and still bound in chains) convict Abel Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes). Magwitch threatens Pip, scaring the boy into bringing him food and drink, as well as a file from the workshop of his adoptive blacksmith father, Joe Gargery (Jason Flemyng), a sweet natured soul who is married to Pip’s harridan older sister (Sally Hawkins). When Magwitch is caught by the authorities a day later, he gets Pip off the hook by saying he came to the blacksmith’s house and took the missing items.

A year later Pip is invited to the dilapidated home of eccentric elderly local doyenne Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter), a rich recluse who tried to literally stop time the day she was jilted on the altar as a young woman. Miss Havisham has an adopted daughter of her own, a haughty redhead named Estella (Helena Barlow), with whom Pip is supposed to play. Pip instantly falls in love with the striking if off putting Estella, even as Estella makes it perfectly clear that no mere “laboring boy” (as she calls Pip) would ever be worthy of her attention. Miss Havisham’s long ago wedding day trauma has played out vicariously through Estella, with the elderly woman egging Estella on to be as heartless and cruel as possible to all men, including Pip.

The film then segues forward several years to find Pip (now played by Jeremy Irvine) a strapping young man working as an apprentice to Joe. When an affable attorney named Mr. Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane) shows up, informing Pip that he’s been bequeathed an immense sum of money by a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous, Pip jumps to the conclusion that it must be Miss Havisham. He moves to London where he begins living the life of a dandy, in what might be thought of as a Dickensian riff on Hogarth's A Rake's Progress. Pip’s preconceptions about who is responsible for his sudden uptick in fortune are blown to smithereens with the reappearance of a long forgotten character, a reappearance which then ushers in a whole series of cascading dominoes which reveal several generations of intertwined fates and releationships. It’s a series of denouements which some may feel strain credulity, but that was part and parcel of both the format Dickens was writing in, as well as the fact that he seemed to prefer third act “callbacks” to events which happen relatively early in the story. Meanwhile, Pip continues to pine away after Estella (now played by Holliday Grainger) who, to add insult to injury, has made plans to marry a boorish "gentleman" Pip had come to know and loathe at a local fraternal organization.

There are several strengths to this iteration of Dickens’ magnificent story, chief among them the caliber of performance and the mood that Newell is able to evoke through production design and (especially) cinematography. The film proves to be an actors’ field day for the brothers Irvine as young and adult Pip, and both Barlow and Grainger as Estella at various ages (even if Barlow doesn’t have quite the haughty grandeur of Jean Simmons in the Lean version). Grainger is especially effective finally showing Estella’s vulnerable side as the story wends toward its conclusion—and here, too, it’s arguable that Newell’s more faithful take on the novel’s ambiguous ending trumps the artificiality and pasted on “happily ever after” ambience that attends the 1946 version. The only real misstep here is Helena Bonham Carter’s Miss Havisham, a character who now seems ported in from some little known Tim Burton concoction. Carter has a too modern and too precious take on the character—Havisham needs to be a little unhinged, and as Carter plays her, she’s simply a fanatic.

Newell and his DP John Mathieson have magnificently caught the mist strewn fens and marshes of England, ably capturing a gritty and grimy time that even pretensions of class can’t completely remove. It’s a somewhat different feeling than the iconic Guy Green gave the Lean version, but that’s only appropriate. Working in color and a widescreen format, Newell and Mathieson make the most of both the wide open spaces of the countryside of Pip’s youth and the urban clutter that afflicts his young adulthood. Lovers of technique may want to contrast framings in the Lean and Newell versions; I was particularly struck by how often Lean shoots up at characters like Magwitch, while Newell tends to reserve that for several key interchanges between Estella and Pip, where Estella definitely has the upper hand and the upper half of the frame. With its somewhat curtailed storytelling, the third act series of revelations may end up playing like a Dickensian precursor to those “Moishe the explainer” moments that always cap an Agatha Christie mystery, but it’s a momentary misstep in what is a very good if imperfect take on material that has been so finely etched in the memories of so many.

Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Great Expectations is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Newell and DP John Mathieson opt for a very gauzy, diffused appearance throughout a lot of Great Expectations, and some may therefore think that this is a "soft" looking transfer. On the contrary, fine detail is quite nicely defined, offering great textures on Pip's mother gravestone or the natty material of Joe's clothing. Facial details are especially well revealed in close-ups. That said, the film has been color graded at times, giving it a slightly green- gray or more traditionally desaturated appearance, something that (intentionally) prevents any real pop in the visuals. Things improve later in the film, where Estella's bright red hair and equally bright purple dress add some color to the palette. A lot of the second half of Great Expectations takes place at night or in very dimly lit environments, but happily contrast is very strong here and shadow detail is commendable, to the point that eagle eyed viewers may be able to spot a miniature or two during the boat sequence late in the film. There does not appear to have been any digital manipulation of the image done for this transfer.

Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Great Expectations' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a very nice balance of more immersive sequences and relatively restrained dialogue moments which still offer some well placed discrete ambient environmental effects. Richard Hartley's nicely elegiac score is utilized to great effect in the surrounds, and there are some surprising bursts of sonic activity when Pip gets to London or even in the scene where he meets his new cohorts at the gentleman's club. Several countryside scenes are awash in excellent environmental effects. Dialogue is presented cleanly (if a bit thickly at times, due to some accents).

Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Great Expectations: Premiere (1080p; 3:37) includes interviews and scenes from the film.


• Great Expectations Trailer (1080p; 2:29)

Great Expectations Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Newell and screenwriter David Nicholls play it nicely straight and narrow (with a few notable exceptions), adapting Dickens' immense tale with a fair degree of finesse and a surplus of emotion and mood. It's kind of refreshing to see a writer and director actually trust a source, not having to resort to gimmicks to create shiny objects for some of today's more attention deficit prone. This Great Expectations has a few stumbles, including a too truncated storytelling style, but it has great work from Irvine, Grainger and Fiennes, even if Bonham Carter doesn't rise to the occasion to deliver an iconic Havisham. Technical merits are very strong on this Blu-ray, and even without a wealth of supplements, Great Expectations comes Recommended.