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Nicholas Nickleby
(Reviewed December 21, 2002)
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Shameful deprivation, horrifying child abuse, a despicably cruel uncle, relentlessly evil capitalists, a crippled servant boy and the noble struggles of the poor-but-righteous...for Charles Dickens fans, that all adds up to "feel-good holiday movie of the year!"
The melodrama is as thick as hasty pudding, the coincidences are eye-rollingly ridiculous, and the final plot twist is amusingly preposterous, but it's all in good fun. When his father dies and his family loses everything, teenage blond hunk Nicholas is dispatched by his nasty uncle (the brilliantly thin-lipped Christopher Plummer) to the world's worst boarding school for boys (run by the outrageously mugging Jim Broadbent). Nicholas befriends a pathetic waif and escapes to rejoin his family, stopping along the way to join a wildly over-the-top troupe of actors (Nathan Lane and Alan Cumming being, as they say, simply wonderful). Anne Hathaway, who was so absolutely awful in last year's dreadful "The Princess Diaries," shows up later to bat her big brown eyes and enchant our Nick with her dewy adorability and irresistible sweetness.
It's all a big, corny, "Masterpiece Theatre"-lite romp, but God knows it's more enjoyable than sitting through a piece of predigested swill like "Two Weeks Notice."
Back Row Grade: B-
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