Great Expectations

Alfonso Cuarón, USA, 1998
3.5 out of 4 stars

I might have liked this one more than it deserves, but I am a big fan of Alfonso Cuarón (see also his later works, Y tu mamá también and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or as I like to to call it, "the only HP film that works as a film"). As such, the film is just very pretty.

My understanding is that it was savaged by critics, because they felt that it fell far short of the the David Lean version. I've never seen it, although I intend to do so later this year, but I suspect that this film needed to be judged on its own merits. It isn't much more than a visual feast superimposed upon the artfully arranged skeleton of the Dickens plot, inventively modernized and Americanized.

I personally enjoy adaptations a great deal, and I think I might like to do my thesis on "adaptation" eventually. I used to consider my habit of comparing the version at hand to the previous (or "original") version to be a detriment to the viewing process, because it seemed like it kept me from being involved in what I was seeing. Increasingly, as I come to value analysis more when I watch films, I enjoy what is a rather easy angle towards analysis. I like seeing what they change, and so increasingly it bores me when they change nothing (and squander the essence in the process). I'm looking at you, first two Harry Potter films. I'll take Cuarón's approach anyday.

Source: Fox DVD
17 January, 10 PM