Product Details

• Actors: Ray Winstone, Oscar Kennedy, Shaun Dooley, Jack Roth, Claire Rushbrook
• Directors: Martin Curry, Malcolm Davies, Tussy Facchin
• Format: Blu-ray, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: PBS (DIRECT)
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2012
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0077PBPV4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,312 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There isn't an adaptation around that can compete with David Lean's definitive version of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, but this BBC-PBS coproduction has its pleasures. Though it gets off to a grim start with a violent skirmish on the moors, the proceedings become less off-putting once naive young Pip (Toast's Oscar Kennedy) grows into a man of some sophistication (now played by the dashing Douglas Booth). His adventures begin when the openhearted orphan helps out escaped convict Magwitch (Oliver Twist's Ray Winstone in fiery form), little realizing the machinations he has set into motion. Afterward, his sister, who resents the burden of his presence, sends him to live with the reclusive Miss Havisham (Bleak House's Gillian Anderson), a ghostly figure clinging to memories of thwarted romance. Miss Havisham means for Pip to entertain her haughty ward, Estella (Izzy Meikle-Small), with whom Pip falls in love, but the grown Estella (Vanessa Kirby) finds him unworthy and his guardian returns him to the forges of his youth. Fortunately, a mysterious benefactor steps in to save the day (David Suchet's solicitor makes the arrangements), allowing Pip to reconnect with Estella and to befriend Herbert Pocket (Harry Lloyd, an actual Dickens descendant), but dark shadows lurk around every London corner. If Anderson, who opts for a too-high vocal register, looks young for the part and if the final sequence deviates from Dickens's original text, director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones) still provides a moving conclusion to a two-part series that becomes more involving as it unfolds. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

An orphan boy meets an escaped convict, a crazed rich woman, a bewitching girl, and grows up to have great expectations of wealth from a mysterious patron, in Great Expectations, Charles Dickens remarkable tale of rags to riches to self-knowledge.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Miss Havisham March 22, 2012

By Charity Bishop

Format:Blu-ray

Some books are just purely cinematic. Great Expectations is one of them, with all the elements of a perfect gothic story: the mad woman, the creepy old house full of cobwebs and bitter memories, the stretch of the forge and the sinister man who arises from the mud to slam the young hero to the ground and threaten his life. This recent adaptation by the BBC is a visual masterpiece, full of understated and wonderful performances, as atmospheric a tale as Charles Dickens could have imagined.

The solitary Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson) has not been seen by any of the locals in many years, not since she was jilted on her wedding day. Now shut up in her great old house, which still bears the ghosts of wounded memories in the form of a moth-eaten wedding gown and rat-infested marriage cake, she decides to enlist the assistance of a forge boy, young Pip (Oscar Kennedy), in entertaining her ward, Estella (Izzy Meikle-Small). Hoping to raise the girl to avenge the sins of her former lover, her innocent appeal causes Pip's family, which includes his unhappy sister, her good-natured husband, and their greedy uncle, to think that perhaps they might rise in society as a result of it. Miss Havisham encourages Pip to be ambitious and hints that he may have great expectations for the future, only to turn around and deprive him of the one thing he wants most, condemning him to the life of a bond servant learning the trade as a blacksmith.

But that is not the end of Pip's journey, nor his relationship with Miss Havisham... for seven years later, Pip (Douglas Booth) is informed by a London solicitor (David Suchet) that he has inherited a great sum of money. It requires abandoning his current life and becoming a gentleman in society...... a plan that will reintroduce him to Estella (Vanessa Kirby) once more.

I have enjoyed this adaptation. It is different from the source material in some respects (and that certainly will give book enthusiasts reason to complain) but it avoids the over theatricality of the roles and instead chooses a far more natural approach. Gillian Anderson chooses to play Miss Havisham both as a woman fully aware of what she is doing and as such, dedicated to evil (though she may not truly know it) and as a vulnerable child in a mature body, forever stuck in one place with no hope of moving forward. The acting here is really remarkable from everyone involved, but particularly so from the young lead. His Pip is all at once a lovely child and one we feel deeply for, yet we are similarly fascinated with Estella and her grim companion.

While certain elements are dramatically different from the book (in order to create a more modern ending) and the second episode stumbles a bit in maintaining the pace of its other parts, this is an enjoyable adaptation that avoids some of the sins of its predecessors while also offering romantics an ending that will make them happy. It is not perfect but it is quite good, and well worth the three hours required to discover its mysteries. Read more ›

43 of 52 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Very little expectations... April 9, 2012

By M. Secaur

Format:Blu-ray

As an ardent fan of Charles Dickens, I am always open to any film adaptation in this day and age of his work, and have to admit that I was quite excited for this new 2011 production of "Great Expectations". While not my favorite of his novels, it nonetheless has a plethora of possibilties when dramatized for the screen, be it big or small. Nonethless, after viewing, I couldn't help but feel a trifle let down.

I've watched several BBC/Masterpiece productions and found them all to be enjoyable, but this one was a chore to watch, even in installments. It wasn't just the rushed pacing, the artsy, color-drained cinematography that feels more appropriate for a horror movie than Dickens, the brutal watering down of his brilliant prose into bland, almost inanely simplified dialogue, or the dropping of important chunks of the novel in favor of inserting newly-imagined scenarios that add nothing but smuttiness to the story (i.e., the inappropriate and unnecessary brothel scene, or the completely travestuous "lake" moment between Pip and Estella) that made me give this film one star; it was the fact that it just felt too modern to be a really good adaptation of Dickens, and that the very spirit of the book was conspicuously absent throughout the entire three hours.

While it's something very hard to explain, it simply never struck me as feeling "authentic", either in a historial sense or a dramatic one. Everything felt forced, like the filmmakers didn't really believe in what they were creating, and the actors just wanted to get through their lines as quickly and painlessly as they could. Honestly, I might never have known this was supposed to be "Great Expectations" aside from the occasional appearance of Miss Havisham.... Sure, the sets look authentic and the costumes are beautiful, but the script feels like a soap-opera styled parody of the book, with acting to match. Douglas Booth, who plays Pip, along with Vanessa Kirby as Estella, never seem to really grasp that they are supposed to be living in the 19th century instead of modern-day, and give stilted, unoriginal performances. I did mildly enjoy Gillian Anderson as the quite mad and ethereal Miss Havisham, though I think Helena Bonham-Carter can do better.

One thing that Charles Dickens' books are well known for is their wittiness and whimsical humour. Even his darkest tales have pepperings of light scattered throughout to lift the mood and create a style uniquely his own. This film has left those credos by the wayside and opted for a far more bleak, shadowy, and humourless rendition, with nothing left but dull and depressing scenes of boring, colorless characters with nothing even remotely interesting to do or say. Character development doesn't happen as often as it should, and in consequence leaves you with little emotional connection to the characters themselves by the end of the film. Pip and Estella's complicated relationship is reduced to a cliched collection of invented scenes, and that between Joe Gargery and Pip, both as a youngster and as an adult, is almost nonexistent.

As I mentioned before, the biggest con for me was the fact that the dialogue has been so oversimplified that you might not know if it was Dickens or not. With other BBC productions, at least of few quotes come verbatim from the pages of the book, helping to bring the world of Victorian England to life, but not so here. The glorious, fanciful language of the time is diminished so heavily that it might just as well been written yesterday instead of in 1860. Without his words, Dickens just isn't Dickens; but apparently Sarah Phelps, the screenwriter, didn't quite comprehend that.

A bit too artsy and modern for my own taste, I was disappointed in the BBC for allowing this to be their Charles Dickens bicentennial production, knowing that they can do and have done much better than this in the past. There is no doubt that this film will appeal to many people, but as for myself, I prefer to wait for Mike Newell's upocoming cinematic adaptation, for which I have much greater expectations. Read more ›

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Strange New Dickens April 2, 2012

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

First-off: since there are those who object to comments made on a single episode of a series on PBS that is yet to be release on DVD, then be aware that this comment is made based only on Episode 1 of 3 Episodes of the new version of Charles Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Having said that, this first episode introduces us to a spooky, otherworldly atmosphere for the great Dickens novel. Sarah Phelps has adapted Dickens for this triptych presentation and the piece is directed with style and great attention to atmospheric detail by Brian Kirk.

The orphan Pip (Oscar Kennedy) works for blacksmith Joe Gargery (Shaun Dooley) and his Dickinsonian shrew of a wife Mrs. Joe (Clair Rushbrook) whose relative Pumblechook (Mark Addy) has designs on the future. Working with Pip is the evil Dolge Orlick (Jack Roth). Pip is wandering the foggy flatlands, comes across escaped criminal Abel Magwitch (Ray Winstone) and befriends him - an act that obviously bodes well for Pip's future. Mr and Mrs Joe receive notice from a Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson) that she wishes to have Pip, and the Gargery family sees a way out of the drudgery in which they live. Pip is off to Miss Havisham's cobwebbed home where she remains secluded from the world since her jilted wedding day. She `adopts' Estella (Izzy Meikle-Small) and seeks a playmate for her - her reason for bringing Pip into the strange home. Bad derring-does happen - Mrs. Joe is practically killed by Orlick, some strange vibrations occur in the Havisham household, etc.... Seven years pass and solicitor Jaggers (David Suchet) visits the home and informs the household that Pip has inherited a great sum of money form an unknown benefactor and wants Pip (now the strikingly handsome Douglas Booth) to go to London to become a gentleman with great expectations, following in the steps of Estella (now Vanessa Kirby). And that is where we leave the group at the end of episode 1.

In this amount of time the moods of the flatlands and the poverty of the poor class have been beautifully drawn as has the bizarre home and disheveled mind of Miss Havisham. The seeds for the rest of the story have been sown and it is with great interest that the following two episodes will carry this version. It is recommended to use subtitles with this series as the various dialects are tough to translate for the American ear. But Dickens this is and a fine beginning. Highly recommended viewing. Grady Harp, April 12 Read more ›