I was undecided about this movie after watching it. I gave myself a week before reviewing it and I’m glad I did. My initial thoughts were not the best. After a while though I’ve realised the characters were interesting enough that I can’t seem to forget them and I even want to revisit them. Surely a testament to Dickens. I think I’ll read the novel rather than watch the film again.
Great Expectations is the poor (it’s all relative) adaptation of the masterpiece by Charles Dickens. It follows the story of a boy who becomes the benefactor to an unknown party. He is to receive a generous income and become a gentleman. A condition of his income is that he call himself Pip as he was known in his childhood years.
Early on young Pip is invited to the house of a weird old woman who is scorned by love. She wears her wedding gown of decades ago and does not leave the room in which her wedding cake still sits on a lavishly laid out table. Sure it’s old and mouldy but who is Pip to judge. The lady is bitter and resents all men as they are worthless and only know how to betray women. She has adopted a servant girl specifically so she can groom her to grow into a lovely lady who will break men’s hearts. Pip is to be one of these men. He all too quickly falls in love with her and spends too much time wondering when he’ll see her next. She on the other hand mistreats him but is honest about her intention to break his heart. Still, Pip can not say no to his heart and dreams of one day marrying her.
I’ll stop here so as not to spoil the movie. It’s not the best of productions but that is not to say it’s terrible. For its time it is fantastic and anyway, it’s all about the characters. I gave it a 7/10.
Great Expectations (1946)