I was very disappointed in this film. I read great reviews beforehand, ("one of the greatest films ever made" and "possibly the best Dickens on film") and expected a magnificent adaptation. I was sorely disappointed. I mean, part of what I love about Dickens is his humor. One of the few attempts at bringing some of the humor from the book into the movie is when Joe visits Pip in London and can't find a place to put his hat. In the book, this is to show how uncomfortable Joe is outside of the forge, but the humor is compassionate and it is always clear that Joe has a certain dignity that money and fine clothes could never buy. In the film, the hat incident is just used to turn Joe into a buffoon and get a laugh at his expense, nothing more.
I don't know how people can say that this movie is faithful to the original. Sure, it is pretty faithful to the story line, even including verbatim excerpts of some of the dialogue, and it was beautifully shot and all, but to say that it is a great rendition of Dickens? Dickens is funny and compassionate and his stories make me think about the human heart and the human motives. This film taught me nothing. If you pare away from the novel all the heart and humor and humanity and everything that makes the characters likable and understandable, leaving only the bare story line, well, then this might be called a great rendition.
I don't know how people can say that this movie is faithful to the original. Sure, it is pretty faithful to the story line, even including verbatim excerpts of some of the dialogue, and it was beautifully shot and all, but to say that it is a great rendition of Dickens? Dickens is funny and compassionate and his stories make me think about the human heart and the human motives. This film taught me nothing. If you pare away from the novel all the heart and humor and humanity and everything that makes the characters likable and understandable, leaving only the bare story line, well, then this might be called a great rendition.