Great Expectations (1998)

I wasn't planning on watching this movie... ever, to be honest. But after yesterday's viewing of Jarhead, I noticed a bit of a theme with the past 3 films, so I decided to go with it. We'll see if anyone can pick up on it as well!

So this is an adaptation of the classic book of the same name, but besides the title, Great Expectations only shares some basic themes. That is to say, it's not exactly the same as the book. For one thing, it's been modernized a bit to give it a bit of a new twist. This spin on the classic story starrs Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft, and Chris Cooper.


In this version of the story, instead of a boy named Pip, our main character is Finnegan Bell (Jeremy Kissner/Ethan Hawke). He lives on the shores of Florida, being raised by his older sister Maggie (Kim Dickens) and her boyfriend Joe (Chris Cooper). Finn loves to draw, and one day while out looking for fish to draw, an escaped criminal (Robert De Niro) catches him and scares the little boy into helping him. Later, Finn meets the wealthy Ms. Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft) and Estella (Raquel Beaudene/Gwyneth Paltrow). Maggie simply disappears one night while working as a street walker, and so Joe is left to raise Finn. As he grows up, Finn falls in love with Estella who has become a coldhearted, selfish young woman. Also, Finn finds himself with a secret benefactor who pays for him to go to New York City, hone his art, and hopefully become a famous artist.

Ms. Dinsmoor asks Finn if he thinks Estella is pretty while he draws her portrait

I really didn't have very high expectations for Great Expectations, I really only watched it as a means to and end. I'm curious if anyone will figure it out! But I wasn't terribly let down by this film. It's possible that's because I didn't expect much, but it was at least somewhat entertaining. I liked the modern day spin on the classic story, and it seemed to fit very well. I liked the aspect of Finn being an artist, but I'll be honest that I didn't really see what was so great about his art. It was apparently made by a real life famous artist, Francesco Clemente, but I guess it's just not my style.

An example of Finn's art work, actually made by Francesco Clemente

There were a few actors in this sprawling cast that stood out to me. First of all, I thought Robert De Niro was great as the criminal, later known as Lustig. Another person who stood out was Chris Cooper. I'm not sure that I've ever seen him play a "good guy" before, but he did a wonderful, and most importantly, believable performance as the kind and loving Joe who raises Finn. Anne Bancroft made an excellently weird and crazy Ms. Dinsmoor, always with her wine, and martinis. Gwyneth Paltrow was a little hit and miss for me. Sometimes I really liked her performance, but other times it just seemed to fall through. Similarly, Ethan Hawke was sometimes really good, but it was inconsistent. Overall he was a slight letdown.

Chris Cooper is sad that he's not given more roles as really nice good men. I really liked him in this.

There was something really strange about this movie though. Almost every scene had nearly everyone in it, dressed in green. Also most locations were smothered in green all around. Really, this entire movie was just overrun with the colour, just like Ms. Dinsmoor's house was overgrown in vines. It became really distracting at some points where entire huge rooms of people were all wearing different shades of green. I really didn't think the cinematography was all that great in this film either. Sometimes Gwyneth Paltrow looked really good, and other times she didn't. I don't think the way they filmed the film was particularly good, but I'm not sure why I got that impression. It just wasn't a pretty movie, and it often felt kind of closed-in and cramped in the scenes.

Does she really like him, or is she just toying with him?

Despite the largely talented cast and the complex story, Great Expectations was merely alright. A lot of that strength, though, comes from the influences of the original book. Also, maybe if I didn't know the story already, I would have found the movie a bit more interesting, as I wouldn't have known what was coming. Most of the film was pretty good though, but just not great... as the title kinda implies. If you missed this one, you didn't really miss much, but if you really liked the book, it might be interesting to see how they changed it to fit in the modern day world.