Good film, but not without flaws

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2013)

The subject of the Elephant Man has always been something that has interested me, and spotting the Elephant Man on TV recently I decided to record it. Physical deformities aside, I knew very little about John Merrick and thought it would enlighten me and help me to understand more about him. Whilst I learnt a lot about John Merrick, I couldn't help being a little disappointed by the film. Before I go into the minor negatives of the film, I will talk through the positive aspects of 'The Elephant Man'
First and foremost is the acting and John Hurt (who is unrecognisable) as The Elephant was exceptional. Although he didn't speak for pretty much the first half of the film, we feel his pain at the beginning and start to warm towards The Elephant Man later in the film when we discover an articulate and gentle 'human being' and this is a testament to Hurt's acting as he makes us 'feel for' and 'relate' to the 'Elephant Man' and also feel sympathy for him. Anthony Hopkins also puts in a good performance - although it is far from his best performance in my opinion (I felt he was much better in Silence of the Lambs and more recently in Fracture). Michael Elphick also stars in a supporting role as a night porter who taunts Merrick and ends up humiliating him by charging people to see 'The Elephant Man'. Freddie Jones also stars as the evil 'Bytes' who parades Merrick around as a freak taking him on circus tours and profiting from Merrick's misery.
The other impressive aspect is the story itself which is both heart wrenching (particularly in the beginning) where everyone shuns Merrick deeming him 'a freak' and an imbecile - even Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) initially calls him an 'imbecile' to the uplifting - Merrick eventually wins people over when they come to realise that he is an articulate, gentle man (although he is ugly on the outside he is pure and wholesome on the inside) and has been treated with intolerable cruelty.
All of the above aspects made this film great, but there are a few aspects of the film that I didn't like i.e the implausibilities in the story - like how Merrick's room isn't guarded at the hospital making it easy for Bytes to kidnap Merrick (which also allowed the Night Porter to allow all his 'friends' to see the Elephant Man and taunt and mock him after taking money from them for the privilege of seeing him.
Aside from the above gripes this is still an excellent film and if you look beyond the minor flaws you've got yourself a beautiful story with some wonderful acting and a central character who you'll really end up warming to.