Product: A Tale of Two Cities (Masterpiece Theatre) (2001)
Rating: 3.0
What a disappointment!
I was expecting so much from this production of ATTC that I must confess my disappointment upon seeing it. I now own four film versions of Dickens' masterpiece and this is the least exciting of them all. In spite of a good cast, reasonably fine art direction and a few scenes that make excellent use of locations with the adequate kind of atmosphere, the film lacks rhythm and true emotion. Above all, this version is absolutely wanting in epic dimension. The crowd scenes are ridiculously poorly staged. One never has the feeling that the characters are immersed in a Paris that was witnessing the bloodbath of the French Revolution. Truly, the 1935 Jack Conway version still stands as the best cinematic portrayal of Dickens' classic novel. The 1958 and 1980 versions place second and third by comparison, and the present one comes as a distant fourth. Too bad.