BBC One has comissioned a new drama series called Dickensian, in which "characters from the author's novels cross paths in 'the most surprising of ways'." (More info here.) Seems to me we already did that -- let's hope they do as good a job as we did, eh? ;-) In all seriousness, I'm envisioning a Dickens-themed sort of Once Upon a Time, which should be pretty interesting! Longtime BBC writer Tony Jordan will be doing the writing.
In brief -- this was a fairly good adaptation, all told. The cast, with a few exceptions, was really excellent, with Bill Paterson's Stephen and Beatie Edney's Louisa being the standouts. And even though it looked like they'd been given about $1.50 to spend on the sets, somehow they made it work. (I can't say as much for the soundtrack, though, which sounded equally cheap and much less effective.) The biggest problem, by far, was the uneven pacing. I wouldn't recommend this film before reading the book -- it would be easy to get lost in the "muddle," as Stephen would say. But it makes a decent supplement to the book.
And we're into the home stretch. Nice little monologue in a mirror for Richard E. Grant. Still don't feel that his look is quite right, but I really can't fault his acting. He's done a fantastic job. Sissy's acting, however, strikes me as a little flat. And she wears her hair down for no reason, a la Billie Piper in Mansfield Park.
The sets for this movie are sparse, but effective. You see Stephen walking past a never-ending brick wall with humungous "VOTE FOR THOMAS GRADGRIND" posters every few feet, you don't need much else.
Finally Harriet Walter gets a full scene. She's not an actress I would have thought of for this role, but she makes a good thing of it, in a quiet, austere way. And she's a nice foil to Bill Paterson's passionate Stephen.
You guys, I have to get you a screencap of Mr. Gradgrind's blackboard. The stuff on it would give nightmares to a graduate student in calculus. And it's so big he has to climb a ladder to get to the top of it, no joke!
The pacing here is a bit rushed -- probably because it's only 104 minutes. If I didn't know the story, I'm not sure how well I'd be able to follow it.
About that vote on which film or miniseries I should recap -- we had an interesting split. All the voters on this site wanted Hard Times, and all the voters in the Dickensblog Facebook group wanted Martin Chuzzlewit! But there were four voters here and three voters over there, which means Hard Times wins. With any luck, I'll get to it, or at least start it, this weekend!
It's been a while now since I've done a review/recap of a Dickens film or miniseries -- which kind of makes sense, because it's been a while now since a new one has come out. However, I do have two box sets of older adaptations sitting on the shelf, most of which I've never seen before. So I think I'd like to do another one pretty soon. I've narrowed it down to three possibilities to start with:
Hard Times (1994), starring Alan Bates, Bob Peck, Bill Paterson, Harriet Walter, and Richard E. Grant.
Martin Chuzzlewit (1994), starring Paul Scofield, Tom Wilkinson, Philip Franks, and Julia Sawalha.
Barnaby Rudge (1960), starring John Wood, Barbara Hicks, Nigel Arkwright, Newton Blick, and Joan Hickson.
If any of you want to express a preference, put it in the comment section below. If we don't get any votes, I'll just go ahead and pick one!
We haven't had one of these in a while, so here's a nice one! This video is by YouTube user bubblewrapstargirl. The song is "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol had "its first prime-time network appearance in decades" on Saturday . . . and I didn't hear about it until afterwards. My humble apologies, dear readers. I deserve to be boiled in my own pudding and buried with . . . well, you know the drill.
Over at BuzzFeed, however, they're arguing that The Muppet Christmas Carol is the best adaptation anyway.
Meanwhile, at the Boulder Daily Camera, Richard Bowman rightly points out, "Nothing can compare with the original. No
theatrical replica, no animated cartoon, no condensed 'Cliff Note'
version can begin to equal the experience of reading the original. I had
known what a great story it is; I hadn't realized how great the
original telling of it is."
Recent Comments