Comments:
I don't care what the other critics say; I thought Great Expectations
was a great movie. I have personally read the Dicken's novel
and analyzed it immensely. I think Cuaron's transformation from
the 1800s, old English setting to the modern version is a spectacular
one. Cuaron drove straight to the point of Dickens' novel, which
tended to ramble on about insignificant details. I was not bored;
the movie did not seem to drag on because Cuaron kept pursuing
the next important moments of the novel. However, because Cuaron
was blunt in expressing the points (ie - Estella is a bitch,
Miss "Dinsmoor" is a freak), he doesn't quite explain
the background of some of the characters very well as Dickens
did. For example, Cuaron never explained where Estella came from.
Was she an orphan? Was she the convict's daughter? Finn's background
was not explained either. All we know is that he lives with a
sister who is supposed to be a bitch (according to the novel),
which is explained subtley through her actions, such as when
a random half naked guy walks out of her house while she is sitting
on the bed naked. The next thing you know, Pip is giving her
the evil eye. Most of the people that I have talked to (who have
never read the book) really didn't catch that. However, Cuaron
does have an eye for detail, which is displayed throughout the
movie by the usage of symbols. For example, Estella wears green
of every shade in every scene. Cuaron left it to each person
to interpret a symbol such a s that, which I thought was quite
clever of him. How about the house? There were roots and trees
growing into it - probably a symbol of Miss Dinsmoor's stagnant
touch with the world around her. This is an interesting story
about unrequited love, a passionate movie plot that we rarely
see taking place in modern times. Gwyneth Paltrow's acting was
superb. We are so used to seeing her as an innocent sweetheart
in movies such as "Emma" and "7" that it
is almost too hard to imagine her as the cold-hearted antagonist
of
the movie. Fortunately, her superb acting persuades us to believe
that. Ethan Hawke did a good job as well as the relentless, passionate
and innocent boy who later becomes tainted by class wars. Overall,
I thought this was a great movie. Other people might not agree
with me if they haven't read the novel; I don't know how much
that would effect their opinion of the movie. But reading the
novel does help explain a lot of the symbolism.
-Julie
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