A convert to Dickensianism...
...for a while, at least.
With a title like Bleak House, I expected the latest BBC adaptation of Dickens to be just as dark and tragic as the others I had seen. What a pleasant surprise! No one was beaten up, only a couple people died, and the main character did not have to suffer throughout the whole movie. Esther Summerson was wonderfully filled with sense, Allan Woodcourt was lovely even though his scenes were few, Mr. Jarndyce was perfectly nice without being caricature, and I even cried for Sir Leicester in the end. The characters of Ada and Richard were well handled, without sensibility, as was the character of Mr. Guppy. There was a predictability to it, which I seem to find in every Dickens novel or movie, but the lack of creepy/odd minor characters cancelled that out. Another charm of this movie was that, though 7 1/2 hours long (:-o), I never felt bored or wished to stop watching it. It is definitely a movie that I would want to show to my friend and family, but may not because of its extreme length.
3 comments:
Sounds pretty good for a Dickens book, but 7 1/2 hours is kind of long. ;D
Bleak House is my favorite Dickens novel, so now I'll have to check out the movie - I didn't even know there was one.
After watching a different long BBC adaptation of a Dickens novel that had many dreadfully boring parts surrounded by a few minutes of good stuff (Our Mutual Friend), I was hesitant to watch this one. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how it kept my attention for 7 1/2 hours! Not nearly as boring as I might have thought with many plot twists and good acting (for the most part). Don't let the name fool you as it is not as "Bleak" as it sounds, though more major characters died than MerryK aluded to. Well worth the time, though I did have to balance sleep with watching and it took me 3 evenings to get through all of the episodes :) Don't
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