A brief word of warning, the trailer does reveal a huge amount of the major plot points in sequence so if you haven't read the book and if you would really like to avoid spoilers, I'd wait until the film comes out.
Starring Jeremy Irvine as Pip, the film follows his rise from an orphan abused by his sister to a London gentleman. On the way, he meets the convict Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes), the tortured spinster Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) and her daughter, the beautiful Estella (Holliday Grainger), all of whom have a profound effect on his life and his journey towards his expectations.
Great Expectations is one of the more famous of Dickens' works and has been adapted for screen numerous times, most recently by the BBC at Christmas. From the look of the trailer, Newell's version could stand up there with the best of them; it's dark, atmospheric and the calibre of the cast means the performances will likely be top-notch. A particular highlight here is Helena Bonham Carter whose own special brand of gothic kookiness was practically made for the role of the manipulative Miss Havisham.
What I really hope for this adaptation is that its brave enough to explore areas of the novel that other films haven't. There is a wealth of comedy to be mined from the Dickens novel, something which usually gets left out in a translation to the big screen in an effort to be 'serious and literary' but, most importantly, this is a story without a happy ending. Any adaptation that presents a faithful ending to Great Expectations immediately goes up in my estimation.
Also starring Jason Flemyng, Robbie Coltrane and Sally Hawkins, Great Expectations will appear in UK cinemas on November 30th.
Source: Collider
Would you like to write about film? Would you like access to exclusive press screenings and review copies of movies weeks before they come out? Would you like your thoughts to be read by thousands of readers? If you would, we're looking for strong new writers. Drop us a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
