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NICHOLAS NICKLEBY Send This Review to a Friend
Charles Dickens was the king of plotting and storytelling, which is once more evident in the streamlined film adaptation of his "Nicholas Nickleby," which delivers a good Dickens yarn with its twists and turns that tweak the emotions while appealing to occasional desire for entertainment with classic literary roots. Accordingly, it boasts some fine performances that do justice to Dickens's characters.
Charlie Hunnam is perhaps a bit to chiseled in his good looks, but in spirit makes a convincing hero in the title role as we follow his fortunes as an adversary of his wicked, conniving uncle Ralph, played with zestful villainy by Christopher Plummer. Left fatherless at 19, Nicholas must struggle for himself, his mother and his sister to survive, and after his uncle gets him a position at a boarding school, he cannot endure the horrible treatment he sees inflicted upon its charges by Jim Broadbent as the nasty Wackford Squeers. It is there that Nicholas meets and befriends the unfortunate Smike, beautifully portrayed by Jamie Bell. The relationship between Nicholas and Smike becomes a center of loyalty and compassion in the story.
The film is peopled by a host of colorful characters played by a noteworthy ensemble, including Juliet Stevenson, Tom Courtenay, Edward Fox, Anne Hathaway, Nathan Lane, Romola Garai, Timothy Spall and Barry Humphries, once credited in his own name as Mr. Leadville, and in the role of Mrs. Crummies credited to Humphries's famous creation, Dame Edna Everage. Alan Cumming gets a chance to provide some shtick as Mr. Folair.
Dickens's novel had to be trimmed, of course, to make it onto the screen within its slightly more than two-hour running time. But director Douglas McGrath, who also did the screenplay adaptation, packs much story and action into the overall drama, and succeeds in giving us a large helping of the essentials. A United Artists release.
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