Great Expectations Reviews

Recast as a tale of erotic obsession and shallow celebrity, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations becomes director Alfonso Cuaron's sadly lush ode to exploited youth, a visual feast that never loses sight of the bitter toll the plot's twists and turns take on its characters. Ten-year-old Finn Bell is a Florida wharf rat whose escape from his hardscrabble life lies in sketching. His uncle Joe (Chris Cooper) fishes and picks up extra cash doing odd jobs for local rich people, including aging eccentric Nora Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft), whose portentously named estate -- Paradiso Perduto -- is slowly vanishing under a veil of Spanish moss. There Finn falls hopelessly in love with Miss Dinsmoor's ward Estella, a gravely beautiful girl being groomed for a career as a pitiless mantrap. Years later, circumstance brings together the adult Finn and Estella (Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow) in New York, where he's on the verge of art-world stardom and she's about to marry socially connected Walter Plane (Hank Azaria). For all the superficial glamour of the New York scenes, it's the episodes from Finn's childhood that have a seductively lucid edge: escaped convict Lustig (Robert De Niro) rising from a pool of shallow water; Finn and Estella sharing their first kiss over a bubbling fountain; Finn mesmerized by the unnaturally lithe Miss Dinsmoor dancing to the jaunty little Latin number "Besame Mucho," then turning to reveal the grotesque mask of makeup behind which her face resides. No doubt about it: Unlike David Lean's much-loved classic, Cuaron's film is loosely based on Dickens. And that's just fine. Awash in vibrant shades of green, and studded with unimpeachable indicators of cool -- Francesco Clemente created Finn's paintings, downtown diva Nell Campbell plays his art dealer -- it's a vividly imagined work that stands firmly on its own two fashionable feet.