20th Century Fox, Rated R
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Written by Andrew Glazer

I read the original Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations in school. I knew Great Expectations, and Mr. Cuaron, your film is no Great Expectations. Sure, the plot's similar enough to the original story to have that title (but just barely). It concerns a boy named Pip, I mean Finn (Ethan Hawke, in basically the same role he played in "Gattaca"), who helps out a convict (Robert DeNiro) and is later repaid for this kindness by becoming a success later in life, but in this film his success comes through becoming an artist. Meanwhile, he runs into Estella, his "first love", over and over. Since she's been trained by Ms. Havisham, I mean Ms. Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft, in the only truly great performance here), to flirt with men and drive them crazy, she does just that to Finn for years. Can you guess what happens at the end in this relationship? The whole movie rests on this part of the plot of the novel. There was so much more to the original novel, and it's basically trying to ride on the coattails of "Romeo and Juliet" and now "Titanic" (that's right Leonardo, the Academy agrees with me that YOU CAN'T ACT, but I digress). But, I gotta hand it to you, Cuaron, despite the tired dialogue and some of the acting, your film is so well photographed, I can't bring myself to give it anything in the * range. And Paltrow and DeNiro sure do their darndest to save the terrible dialogue by delivering worthy performances, not to mention the originality of setting it in the '80s, not the '90s (still Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy probably handled this better). So I sure hope that Dickens didn't roll too much in his grave, for your sake. ** 1/2

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