"Great Expectations"
Reviewed by Eric Grossman
Copyright Eric Grossman 1998
`Great Expectations,' which stars Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Bancroft, takes Dickens' classic tale and presents it in a new milieu. The names Pip and Havisham have been changed to Finn and Dinsmoor, and the story now takes place in Florida, but the theme is the same.
A young boy named Finn, who loves to paint, is lured into the world of a rich, eccentric and vengeful old woman, Ms. Dinsmoor (Bancroft) and her niece, Estella. Ms. Dinsmoor, whose fiancé left her on their wedding day, has sworn revenge against all men and Estella is her weapon. Trained since early childhood, the young girl knows every trick to manipulating a boy's heart and despite a warning from Ms Dinsmoor that she'll break his heart, Finn falls for her.
As Finn grows older (now played by Hawke), he still makes his way once a week to Ms. Dinsmoor's decrepit mansion so that he can dance with Estella, now played by Paltrow. Finn continues to paint while Estella keeps playing mind games with him, leading him on and then giving him the cold shoulder until one day, she leaves for Europe. Finn, heartbroken, gives up art and becomes a fisherman until one day, a lawyer mysteriously shows up and grants him all of his wishes: an art show, money, and a plane ticket to New York, where Estella now resides.
Once in New York, Finn finds that the woman he is infatuated with has grown worldlier and more dangerous, but his love for her only increases the more unobtainable she becomes. He struggles to become her equal in the hopes that perhaps then, he may finally have her.
As directed by Alfonso Cuaron, this version of `Great Expectations' is filled with lush cinematography and production design. Unlike the David Lean version, which was darker and more moody, Cuaron fills his picture with enchanting Gulf Coast scenery and New York kineticism; basically, Dickens gets the MTV treatment. Hawke and Paltrow have the right look for this type of production, but there is a superficial quality to Hawke's performance, making it difficult to care about Finn as much as we should. As Estella, Paltrow is effectively icy but the real scene-stealers are Bancroft, who gives a fun and wild performance as the deranged Ms. Dinsmoor, and Robert De Niro, as the prisoner whom Finn helps escape. The best scenes in `Great Expectations' are the early ones, where young Finn has his first encounters with the prisoner, Ms. Dinsmoor and her mansion, and Estella. There is a sense of charm, mystery and danger to these moments, which is unrivaled in the later parts of the movie.
Overall, `Great Expectations' is not astonishingly good or bad. Those who feel compelled to see it because of its cast will most likely enjoy it, however, for those interested in the story, Lean's version is still the one to beat.
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