Helena Bonham Carter plays Miss Havisham in new Great Expectations film - Telegraph Film news Helena Bonham Carter plays Miss Havisham in new Great Expectations film Helena Bonham Carter is playing Miss Havisham in a new film of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations, which will be given it's first public screening at the BFI London Film Festival. Helena Bonham-Carter as Miss Haversham in film, 'Great Expectations' By Roya Nikkhah , Arts Correspondent 7:20AM BST 21 Oct 2012 Comments She is one of Charles Dickens’ most disturbing and unattractive characters and when Helena Bonham Carter was first asked to play Miss Havisham, she said it was “like a slap in the face”. The character is often portrayed as elderly and Bonham Carter, 46, said that when initially approached to play her in a new adaptation of Great Expectations, by director Mike Newell, she was taken aback. “I thought 'Jesus, give us a chance’,” she added.

“But then Mike told me, 'don’t panic, if you read the book she’s actually in her 40s’ – in other words exactly the same age as me.” The actress said that she became “obsessed” with the role. “She really is an incredible character. I kept wondering how does anyone end up being so psychologically grief-struck?” Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster jilted at the altar in her youth, is confined to her dilapidated mansion, Satis House, where she lives in faded grandeur with Estella, her adopted daughter. Related Articles Charles Dickens 200 years on: Prince leads events 07 Feb 2012 She is at the heart of Dickens’ rags-to-riches story of Pip, an impoverished orphan who is elevated to the life of a gentleman after receiving a bequest from an anonymous benefactor. Never changing out of her wedding dress and surrounded by her rotting, abandoned wedding feast, Miss Havisham manipulates Estella, encouraging her to break Pip’s heart. In the novel, Dickens described her as “the witch of the place”.

The new screen adaptation of the Dickens’ novel is directed by Newell, the filmmaker behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, with a screenplay by David Nicholls, the author of One Day. It stars Jeremy Irvine as Pip, Holliday Grainger as Estella and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch, the escaped convict who is revealed to be Pip’s benefactor. The comedian and actor David Walliams also appears in the film as Uncle Pumblechook, alongside Robbie Coltrane as Mr Jaggers, Miss Havisham’s lawyer. The adaptation, which will close the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday with a screening at the Odeon, Leicester Square, marks the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth this year. It is released nationwide on November 30.

Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» ‘Great Expectations,’ Directed by Mike Newell - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Another Dickens Orphan, Still Seeking More Search Another Dickens Orphan, Still Seeking More ‘Great Expectations,’ Directed by Mike Newell Great Expectations Photo Ralph Fiennes is Magwitch in the new “Great Expectations.” Credit Johan Persson/Main Street Films Mike Newell ’s screen adaptation of Charles Dickens ’s “Great Expectations” is never more alive than when it pauses from its breakneck storytelling to gawk at the chaos of 19th-century London. There is Pip, a former blacksmith’s assistant, now outfitted as a gentleman, being shoved this way and that while stumbling through the mud and the carnage of a London meat market. The bacchanals of the Finches of the Grove, the rich boys’ club he joins, are deafening animal-house melees of flying furniture and dishes. But such surges of vitality are few and far between. Containing enough characters and subplots for three movies, the novel has been nearly suffocated by Mr.

Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”) and his screenwriter, David Nicholls, in an effort to get everything in. To do so, even in 128 minutes, is an accomplishment of sorts, but the final product has the weight of CliffsNotes enlivened by some vivid snapshots. This version of “Great Expectations” is the latest of numerous film and television adaptations, none of which approach the confidence of David Lean’s classic 1946 rendition , with judicious editing that left the story room to breathe. Photo Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham. Credit Johan Persson/Main Street Films The narrative maintains a semblance of balance until the final half-hour, when it leaps from a brisk trot into a full gallop, and coherence goes by the wayside. How much time has passed, who has been where, and why, are impossible to know. As the plot strands are hastily tied up, you feel only frustration at being denied the pleasure of a long, emotionally rich denouement.

When Pip first appears, he is an angelic orphan being raised by his harridan of a sister and her kindhearted husband, Joe (Jason Flemyng), a blacksmith who later takes him under his wing as his apprentice. Joe is the novel’s conscience and moral grounding wire, who observes sadly as Pip (Toby Irvine) ascends from a humble workman into a spoiled, snooty gentleman after receiving a mysterious inheritance that is ultimately lost. In one of the best scenes, Joe visits Pip in London, where the young man puts on airs and rudely criticizes his table manners. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The strongest performance belongs to Ralph Fiennes as Pip’s secret benefactor, Magwitch, an escaped prisoner the young Pip meets in a graveyard and takes pity on, bringing him food, whiskey and an iron file to saw through his chains. As he is caught and dragged away, this scraggly, Caliban-like beast flashes Pip a look of pleading gratitude. The story picks up speed, and Pip, who has always longed to be a gentleman of leisure, resigns himself to his trade as a blacksmith.

In the meantime, he is engaged by Miss Havisham ( Helena Bonham Carter ), a wealthy spinster corroded with rage since being left at the altar on her wedding day, to be a companion to her adopted daughter, Estella (Holliday Grainger). Estella, whom Miss Havisham brought up to hate men, is a cool cookie who marries for money and lives to regret it. At 47, Ms. Bonham Carter is among the younger actresses to play Miss Havisham, and the craziness of her caricature at times suggests Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.” Photo Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger. Credit Johan Persson/Main Street Films The grown-up Pip ( Jeremy Irvine of “War Horse”) is working as a blacksmith when he receives the news of his inheritance. Mr. Irvine, the older brother of Toby, never shakes off the dewy glow of a male ingénue, even after the wealth goes to Pip’s head and he behaves like an insufferable twit.

“Great Expectations” comes alive again when Magwitch shows up at Pip’s door and reveals himself to be his benefactor, to the astonishment of the young man, who had mistakenly imagined that it was Miss Havisham. But it is a brief respite before the movie succumbs to plot machinations that are noted without elaboration. The film’s handling of Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane), Pip’s dispassionate lawyer and a puller of many plot strings, is perfunctory, despite Mr. Coltrane’s expansive performance. Longing looks and flowery speeches do not make Pip’s overwhelming passion for the chilly Estella remotely credible. In the production notes, the creators declare erotic heat to be at the movie’s heart, but there is none. There is also little evidence to support the filmmakers’ declaration that their handling of the novel’s detective story elements reflects the influence of film noir. That’s probably all for the best, since this “Great Expectations” is essentially a reverent, traditional accounting of the Dickens classic. For all its lapses, the portrait of a Darwinian social order of haves and have-nots resonates with the chilly, jittery times in which we live.

“Great Expectations” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for mild violence. Great Expectations Writers David Nicholls, Charles Dickens (Novel) Stars Toby Irvine, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng, Sally Hawkins, William Ellis Rating PG-13 Great Expectations Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 34 out of 40 people found the following review useful: Unfulfilled Expectations from United Arab Emirates 22 October 2012 Great Expectations is one of my favorite novels and I have seen every screen adaptation to date. None has made more impact on me than the David Lean version. I was so looking forward to Mike Newell's version which seemed to have the perfect casting. I was though quite disappointed. Granted that it is very difficult to tell this story in a couple of hours of screen time, but that is no excuse for making a film which rushes through the events in the book without providing sufficient depth of the characters and motivation for their actions for the audience to feel empathy with them. Such a story deserves a longer screen time or alternatively cut out some of the secondary characters and provide more focus on the main characters.

The film has a very "Harry Pottery" look which is no surprise since Newell made one of the films in that series. Performances are generally fine, with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter predictably stealing the main honors. Was the above review useful to you? 23 out of 28 people found the following review useful: An at times gripping but overall meandering retelling from United States 22 October 2012 This adaptation of Great Expectations did enchant me at some points. There was a definite highlight in the relationship between Magwitch (played by Fiennes)and Pip (Irvine). The issue, however, comes with a certain lack of focus in the film: it could have centered on the gripping dynamic of those two, but instead wandered between hopeless Estella-loving Pip and confused gentleman-aspiring Pip, not choosing to dwell on the excellent depictions of rough father figure Magwitch and reluctant son Pip. The best moments involved them - from the disbelief when Pip realizes who Magwitch is to the suspense and melancholy of their later scenes. In short, the acting was spot-on, but the story wavered.

Director Newell walked a very fine line between kitschy and touching in depictions of Havisham, Estella and Pip's relationship. With Estella and Pip's main confrontation, for example, I found myself drawn in and absorbed by their emotions - but the over-the-top display of melodrama, with Estella over-symbolically torn between Havisham and Pip, quickly cut through the tension and made it veer toward the more absurd. Bonham Carter as Havisham was a good choice, but it seemed almost too obvious: she plays the part as if straight from Tim Burton's CORPSE BRIDE, a film she herself has compared her character to. It was worth it to watch the excellent acting by Irvine and Fiennes. There were laughs and tension but it was all quite formulaic; and the meandering film focus, finally leading to a spotlight on Estella/Pip but without a satisfying kick in the end, did not add up to a particularly memorable film. 6/10. Was the above review useful to you?

23 out of 29 people found the following review useful: Great expectations just about met from United States 14 April 2013 The past few years have seen an increase in creative adaptations of classic novels. Mike Newell's Great Expectations may seem uninspired compared to challenging and inventive films like Anna Karenina or Wuthering Heights, down to the easy casting of Helena Bonham Carter as a crazy old woman and a score that sometimes sounds lifted piece by piece from Pride & Prejudice. Newell surprises, though, and has imagined a solid and remarkably captivating and evocative counterpart. For those who never took freshman year English, Great Expectations is the story of a common orphan, Pip (Toby and Jeremy Irvine), who lives with his horrid shrew of a sister (Sally Hawkins)and kind-hearted father figure husband (an excellent Jason Flemyng). One day, Pip runs into an escaped convict (Ralph Fiennes) who terrifies him into stealing food and a file; the convict takes a liking to him before he is recaptured and taken away.

Pip is later selected by neighborhood freak Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter, stretching herself) to play with her adopted daughter Estella (Helena Barlow and Holliday Grainger). He believes Miss Havisham wants to mold him into a gentleman so he can marry and provide for Estella, until she helps him become a blacksmith and bids him goodbye. Years later, Pip falls into a large fortune from an anonymous benefactor, and after making himself presentable, he returns to Estella. I've been careful to limit my excitement since Newell's involvement was announced. 20 years ago he would have been the perfect choice, but after he attempted to make an action scene out of every dramatic beat in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and bastardized the poetic beauty of Love in the Time of Cholera, I'd lost faith. Great Expectations, though, is a return to form for a once-upon-a-time master of the genre.

While it occasionally suffers from genre confusion (Bonham Carter's scenes play out more comedically than they perhaps should have), his habit of making things more action-y than they really are actually enhances the material here - the fire and boat scene are a thousand times more adrenaline- packed than in the novel - and the enthralling pacing, expertly crafted visuals, and lively dialogue and performances add up to a very fine film. The visual aspects deserve special mention for how much they bring to the movie. It feels as if the cinematography and art direction are working to illustrate and expand on the writing, rather than simply constructing a picturesque background (which Newell was guilty of in Cholera). Scenes at Pip's home look heavenly, with golden lightning and wide shots making his world look endless and welcoming. By contrast, when he becomes a gentleman, close-ups, dreary costumes and dark, windowless rooms contribute to a more claustrophobic and icy atmosphere.

The cleverness of the lighting is particularly pronounced when Pip and Estella reunite after years: we see a close-up of Irvine, with only darkness behind him, then one of Grainger in a hallway lit by brassy lanterns, positioned almost as if they are lighting a path for him to follow. The last time we see Estella, as a changed woman open to Pip's affections, is the first time we see her in a wide open space. These visual cues are simple and unintrusive, but enhance subtext and recreate the poetry of Dickens' novel. Irvine is a capable and likable enough lead, but the film belongs to the supporting cast. Bonham Carter's interpretation of Miss Havisham is intriguing, if not perfectly executed. It recalls her performance in Big Fish, where she toes the line between outlandish and pathetic. Grainger's Estella is beautifully acted - her delivery of "I am what you made me" is chilling. Jessie Cave and particularly Jason Flemyng give adorably heartfelt and rustic performances, while Olly Alexander is hilarious and brings heaps of life to a normally dull character. The true star, though, is Ralph Fiennes.

It's a shame this didn't get an Oscar push, because with a strong narrative and a proper campaign, he could have been a serious threat. Fiennes completely sinks into his character; there isn't a trace of his past performances as well-groomed, eloquent gentleman. He's frightening and savage, but oddly sympathetic, and in his more intimate scenes he absolutely devastates. There are memories of an entire life behind his eyes. Without a doubt this is one of his best performances and sadly it seems it will go unrecognized. It's not quite a perfect film - it's very short and so some characters and themes get lost in the shuffle, and certain tonal shifts feel jarring and inappropriate - but it's a damn good one. Newell seems to have finally found a functional dynamic for a period piece, a happy balance between contemplative and spirited. Due as well to his phenomenal cast and production team, he's done a wonderful job of bringing a difficult and gloomy novel to life. Was the above review useful to you?

18 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Expectations that are not really met from United Kingdom 4 September 2013 Far from a terrible film but rather disappointing too, seeing as this did have a lot going for it. Plus the trailer actually looked really good. There are certainly some good things, even when a film or series doesn't quite work there are not many times where there is nothing redeeming about it. This Great Expectations does have a fair few merits and the best of these merits actually come off quite well. The costumes and sets are both beautiful and evocative, and the reuniting of Pip and Estella has some very clever lighting, there is great atmosphere and poetry in this moment. The music is haunting, is fitting for the tone of the film and doesn't overbear things too much. The opening scene is very atmospherically effective also, though the adaptation that did this scene best and quite possibly without equal is David Lean's. And while the acting is inconsistent, there are some very good performances, and actually most of the performances fall into the very good category.

The star was Ralph Fiennes, his Magwitch was both creepy and tragic, in the earlier scenes Fiennes is chilling but later on he is very likable and you feel pity for the character. Helena Bonham Carter really gives her all to Miss Havisham, wonderfully bitter and dramatic, if physically a little too on the voluptuous side for a character that is described the complete opposite in the book. Jason Flemying is an excellent and dignified Joe, Robbie Coltrane is firm and somewhat larger than life as Jaggers and Olly Alexander's Herbert Pocket is eccentric and quaint as well as earnest and upbeat, a very engaging performance of a potentially dull character. Jeremy Irvine looks the part for Pip but his acting style came across as too overwrought and too innocent, while Holly Grainger looks radiant but not cold enough for Estella. They are marginally better than the miscast leads in the respectable but flawed 2011 BBC adaptation, but only just. David Walliams mugs his way through the role of Uncle Pumblechook and painfully so, it may work for Little Britain but it is completely wrong here.

Toby Irvine and Helena Barlow are very competent and work well together, if lacking that extra spark to make them truly memorable, Barlow also could have a little more spiteful. Aside from these problematic casting choices there are other reasons why this adaptation of Great Expectations fell short. It is a very difficult story to adapt, Dickens generally is difficult to adapt, but the story is not very engaging here, though there are some bright spots like the opening scene. The pacing can get tedious while some of the details are rushed through and under-explained, the Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham scenes veer towards the absurd rather than the tense and the scenes between Irvine and Holliday don't have that much pulse. The ending is also very badly bungled. The script can get rather trite and wordy with some awkward tonal shifts. And while the period detail is great and there are moments where the lighting is clever, the way the film looks is rather too grim, too much of the Harry Potter and Tim-Burton-at-his-most-Gothic vibe.

Mike Newell does deserve some credit for bringing out the story's dark approach but too often it is too emphasised so the film generally lacks life, and consequently the dark obsession that is at the heart of this great story comes across as rather flat. Overall, a long way from bad but not as great as it could have been, personally this was a mixed feelings sort of reaction towards the film. 5/10 Bethany Cox Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Appropriate adaptation about the humble orphan suddenly graced and become a gentleman with the help of a mysterious benefactor from Santander Spain 16 May 2014 Acceptable translation of classic Dickens book with a competent direction by Mike Newell . The movie deals with an orphan child called Pip (Jeremy Irvine, though Alex Pettyfer turned down the role) meets on the dark moor an escaped convict hiding out in the Victorian English countryside called Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes) and helps him . A kindness that will change the course of Pip's life , though he doesn't realize it .

Magwitch escapes and is aided by young orphan Pip ; then Magwitch discovers a fortune , which he decides to use to make him into a gentleman . Later on , at a musty mansion Pip meets an old woman , Miss Havershan (Helena Bonham Carter , though Meryl Streep was approached for the role, but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts), and a beautiful girl called Stella (grown-up, a haughty beauty Holliday Grangier , though Rooney Mara turned down the role) who has been raised by the eccentric Miss Havershan . Pit suddenly becomes a gentleman with the support of an unknown benefactor and his advocate (Robbie Coltrane) . But his enemies would like to get Pip's inheritance for themselves . Meanwhile , Pip befriends Herbert Pocket (Olly Alexander) and Pip's likable flatmate . The film is an alright adaptation based on Charles Dickens's novel , being pretty well directed by the nice director Mike Newell . In the movie there is intense drama , a love story , emotion , tragedies and is pretty entertaining , though has more style than substance . Although the images and settings are compelling , the filmmaker should have learned that beauty on the surface isn't all essential .

This is a respectable but sometimes dull recounting about notorious novel , being finely performed , splendidly staged with adequate sets , stunning visuals and interesting drama of a well known story . Newell's professional retelling of Dickens tone but easily dwarfed by the classic 1946 David Lean's version . Well-acted by all , but especially by Helena Bonham Carter's slightly pathetic and mad Miss Havishan decided to wreak havoc on the male gender ; Helena stated in an interview that she wore only one shoe for the shooting , as Dickens described Miss Havisham as wearing only one shoe . Jeremy Irvine's enjoyable acting as starring , he's romantic , sympathetic , attractive but also vulnerable and memorable . Robbie Coltrane as the agreeable lawyer is top notch , and secondary cast as Ewen Bremner , Olly Alexander , Sally Hawkes , Jason Fleming , among others , are excellent . Special mention to Ralph Fiennes as the unknown benefactor who becomes Pit into a well-heeled gentleman . Atmospheric as well as colorful cinematography by John Mathieson . Evocative and sensitive musical score by Richard Hartley . Rating : Above Average . Well worth seeing for Charles Dickens lovers .

There are many adaptations about this famous novel , they result to be the followings : ¨Great expectations¨ (1943) by Stuart Walker with Phillips Holmes , Henry Hull , Jane Wyatt , Francis L Sullivan ; ¨Great expectations¨ (1946) by David Lean , considered to be the greatest version of the Charles Dickens novel with John Mills , Finlay Currie , Martita Hunt , Valerie Hobson , Alec Guinnes , Jean Simmons , Francis L Sullivan , possibly the best Dickens on film . The modern rendition by Afonso Cuaron featured by Ethan Hawke as Pit , Gwyneth Paltrow as Stella and Anne Bancroft as Miss Havershan is deemed average . And several TV adaptations and miniseries such as : 1981 with Bratford Jones and John Hickson ; 1987 The untold story with John Stanton , Sigrid Thornton , Anne Louise Lambert , 1989 by Kevin Connor with Anthony Hopkins , Jean Simmons , John Rhys Davies , 1999 by Julian Jarrold with Ioan Gruffud , Justine Waddell , Charlotte Rampling and Bernard Hill . Was the above review useful to you?

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: A great love story that shouldn't be missed! from United Kingdom 10 June 2014 Before the review starts I must say that it might be a little biased. Coming from another country, before I saw the movie I had never heard of the book (maybe the title once or twice in a different translation) or any of the movie adaptations. For everyone else I suspect it wasn't as interesting as it was to me. The movie is about a boy, Pip, who gets in the possession of some money and coming from a poor background, goes on to become a gentleman in London. The movie is filled with a very well-known cast, e.g. Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). As seen from previous movies, everyone delivers a remarkable performance, especially Carter with the wounded character of Miss Havisham (there's a good twist around the end involving her). Another great stand out was Holliday Grainger in the role of Estella. I loved her, and will be definitely looking at what projects she chooses in the future.

It was a nice surprise when she appeared in Anna Karenina (2012), and although just for a couple of seconds, she played her part there very well too. The story, although I've never heard of it, is a classic. It's handled very well, and the love story too. Two people that were never meant to be together. Even though Estella is trying to push Pip away, Pip always comes back. There is definitely chemistry between the two. The sets and costumes were another high point of the movie. The women's wear in particular worked very well for the time period in which the story is set. The depiction of 1980s London was very graphic and very well done. Nothing seemed CGI, and all the sets looked very realistic. Every movie has a flaw, and nearly every time it's the pace. The movie did slow down around the middle, after Pip arrives in London and settles down. Not much happened. I recommend this to most movie fans looking for a good drama. Fans of the story will probably dig the new adaptation too. Enjoy.

Acting - 10/10 Costumes - 10/10 Pace - 8/10 Sets - 10/10 Overall - 9/10 8 October 2013 *** This review may contain spoilers *** As someone who loves Charles Dickens and the work of director Mike Newell, I have been eagerly anticipating this film since its release in England last fall. I was fortunate enough to attend its Arizona premiere at the Scottsdale International Film Festival on October 7th, and I have to say that all my anticipation was well justified. It is more than just a good film or a faithful adaptation of one of the 19th century's greatest novels; it is a masterpiece. I can't understand why so many reviews, both critics and the public alike, are so negative. It is a good watch whether you've read the novel or not. Literary purists will enjoy it for the fact that it stays so close to the book, and casual film buffs will appreciate that the twisting Dickensian plot is made comprehensible enough so that they can follow along as well.

Having watched other adaptations including the much-lauded 1946 Lean film version, which was, incidentally, the last time this story made it to the silver screen, others pale in comparison. There is not a thing about it that I would change or want any different. It is probably the best film I've seen all year. Hats off to screenwriter David Nicholls, who manages to successfully translate a 450+ page novel into the perfect 2-hour film. He kept it to just the right length--long enough to avoid feeling butchered, but short enough so that things weren't dragged out longer than necessary. The pacing was good, and I never felt like something had been "cut out", a rare feeling in a production like this. The preservation of Dickens' own dialogue and his occasional touches of humor lends an authenticity rarely felt in adaptations of his work (ref. BBC's disastrous 3-hour miniseries). The visual look is lush of the film is lush and gorgeous, with evocative landscapes of the Kentish coast and Gothic interiors looking equally appropriate.

The choice of costumes and hairstyles is intriguing, a stylized mash- up of 19th century with a pseudo-theatrical flair, particularly those of Estella's, which was the only element that seems out of place in the story's time period, but overall it works in this film. What I found to be the most pleasant surprise was how well acted this film was. So many actors seem to fall into the trap of allowing over-the-top theatricality and quirkiness overpower the human side of their performance and all but ignore the fact that Dickens intended his characters to come off as real people, but that trap has been cleverly avoided. The entire cast is ideally suited to their respective parts and give real, moving performances. Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger as the older Pip and Estella gave better performances than I expected from the trailer, and look out for Toby Irvine, Jeremy's real-life younger brother, as Young Pip--he's a scene-stealer! Helena Bonham Carter simply is Miss Havisham, and plays her as she should be played, slightly dotty, but with a reason for her madness.

Robbie Coltrane is excellent as the less-than-trustworthy Jaggers, and Jason Flemyng as Joe is literally an exact replica of the character as I imagined while reading the novel. The real standout, though, is Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch. His beautiful eyes carry the character to perfection, and along with a believable but intelligible North Country accent, it's hard to imagine anyone but him in the role. To sum up, Mike Newell's "Great Expectations" is unquestionably one of the best Dickens adaptations ever made, certainly the best of feature-length, and I recommend it to anyone. Was the above review useful to you?

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: 'We are who we are, people don't change' from United States 20 April 2014 Director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter, Love n the Time of Cholera, Mona Lisa Smile, Enchanted April, etc) joins with creative screenwriter David Nicholls (When Did You Last See Your Father?, One Day, Starter for 10, Tess of the D'Urbervilles) and a cast and crew of enormous talent and delivers what in this viewer's opinion is the finest version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS on film. Few explorations of this complicated, dense novel by Charles Dickens manage to make every character wholly credible  no absolute villains or absolute heroes here, just a range of behavior throughout the spectrum that makes every character beautifully defined, making the intricate story wholly comprehensible. The story is soften told that the plot is well known  though never as fully realized as in this beautifully photographed (John Mathieson) and scored (Richard Hartley) version.

Pip as a lad (Toby Irvine, Jeremy Irvine's younger brother) is terrified by an encounter with escaped convict Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes) and befriends him  a significant moment in the story. The young orphan Pip is kept by blacksmith Joe Gargery (Jason Flemyng) and his horrid wife (Sally Hawkins) until he is engaged by the strange Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) in her strangely creepy house to play with her 'daughter' Estella (Helena Barlow). In rather rapid sequence the adult Pip (now Jeremy Irvine) inherits a fortune from an anonymous benefactor, his future seems promising. Estella (now Holliday Grainger) seems bent on a different life than one with the obviously infatuated Pip. Pip is off to London, becomes a wealthy gentleman, still pines for Estella, is supervised by Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane) until a series of secrets surface and the story proceeds to its complex conclusion. The vast cast is populated with some of England's finest actors and they all give sterling performances. The costumes and locations and settings are splendid. And for once the complex Dickens' story makes complete sense. Highly recommended.

Was the above review useful to you? 5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: beautiful in profound sense from Romania 13 September 2014 it has a special beauty. far to be perfect, far to be convincing at whole, it has the science to use the kitsch and the light, the dialog and the details in wise manner. and that performance is its high virtue. old stereotypes - Helena Bonham Carter using Tim Burton recipes, remarkable parts - Jeremy Irvine as one of the most good Pip and the nuances of Magwitch by Joseph Fiennes, the crumbs of sentimentalism and the air of novel does it more than a correct adaptation. a beautiful film in profound sense. for the romanticism, for the links between characters, for the inspired way to tell the story. sure, nothing spectacular. sure, almost nothing new. but useful for remember the spirit of a great novel. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Amazing, wonderful, fantastic 20 December 2012 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Where do i begin, what a cast the acting was quite simply fantastic.

The very sexy Ralph Fiennes covered in dirt i was in my element, this is the best version of this classic and i have seen them all. Helena Bonham Carter is such a great actor she has the ability to make it look so easy. I didn't think she would be able to be as good as the excellent job that Gillian Anderson had previously done in the BBC adaptation, but she definitely put her mark on this character an unbelievable performance As for the younger members of the cast Holiday Granger is as i suspected a very diverse young woman and i personally think she has a great career ahead of her. Go and see this or rent it out you will not be disappointed. the whole feel of the movie Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 4: The 'Great Expectations' trailer. Because Miss Havisham. - LA Times The 'Great Expectations' trailer. Because Miss Havisham. Great Expectations The trailer for the film "Great Expectations." The trailer for the film "Great Expectations." Carolyn Kellogg Is it fair to say that an actress as talented as Helena Bonham-Carter was born to play a role? Because I want to say that she was born to play Miss Havisham.

Miss Havisham, as you probably learned in high school or college, is the elderly jilted bride in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." The character was abandoned on the day of her wedding -- she learned the news at her dressing table, wearing her gown and having put on just one shoe. Heartbroken, she never moved -- terrifying, wealthy, and malevolent, she sits there so unmoving she is strewn with cobwebs. The character is cartoonish but intimidating, both powerful and mad. Who can do that better than Helena Bonham-Carter? The trailer for director Mike Newell's new film version of "Great Expectations" shows she's pretty much nailed it, of course. But I'm not sure the rest of the movie measures up. The story is about the romance between Pip, a poor boy, and Estella, the upper-class adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. There are several plot twists, the main one being that Pip becomes rich thanks to an anonymous benefactor. He tries to groom himself as a gentleman for the lovely Estella, who has been brought up to be exquisitely cruel. Can Jeremy Irvine bring Pip to life?

Has Holliday Grainger's role in "The Borgias" prepped her for Victorian-era nastiness? Does the soundtrack try a little too hard? Does the trailer give away a little too much? Watch and decide. ALSO: Great Expectations: Miss Havisham given 'youthful' air - BBC News BBC News Great Expectations: Miss Havisham given 'youthful' air By Michael Osborn Arts and Entertainment reporter, BBC News 24 December 2011 Close share panel Image caption Gillian Anderson portrays Miss Havisham as both tragic and consumed by the need for revenge Tortured, ghostly, eternal bride-to-be Miss Havisham is returning in a fresh screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' literary classic Great Expectations. The wealthy heiress, who was jilted on her wedding day and lived as a recluse for decades afterwards, haunts her tumbledown mansion clad in a dusty matrimonial gown. Miss Havisham - with her white matted hair and wedding feast table preserved in cobwebs - has been played by older actresses in previous major incarnations.

Joan Hickson played her at the age of 75 in 1981, while Anne Bancroft was cast in a 1998 modern reworking of Dickens's story at the age of 67. But for the new take on Great Expectations she is portrayed by Gillian Anderson, who at 43 is the youngest screen star to play the woman who casts a huge shadow over the life of Pip, hero of the tale. "Dickens doesn't qualify Miss Havisham's age specifically. If you add up the numbers at the time, it makes sense she would have been about 37," explains Anderson. HAVISHAMS ON FILM Helena Bonham Carter - 2012 (bottom right) The US-born star has no concerns that she is too young for the role. "This is me, at this age, this actress being hired for a particular reason and honouring that. I'm not going to say: 'I'm not doing this because you should have hired an older actress.'" Her unnerving interpretation of the tragic yet cruel Havisham is ghostly, ashen-faced and becomes craggier as the story progresses - but did not rely on any ageing prosthetics.

Anderson's transformation took less than two hours when Havisham was shown at her most decayed. "I had an idea for a grey which I didn't think existed," says Anderson of her contribution to the character's look. "There was a specific grey I felt her hair should be, which they were able to find. It's kind of opaque and translucent but at the same time holds light. It's not white, it's not too grey, it's just this middle non-colour." Anderson's Havisham floats disconcertingly around her mothballed home, where the clocks are stopped at the moment when she was jilted and her wedding cake is being feasted on by mice. Her lips are desiccated and she claws her skin at moments of stress, while dark circles frame her eyes. 'Heartbroken mess' The actress, known for her long-running role in The X-Files, maintains that she did not go back to previous portrayals of Miss Havisham for guidance. "My fear is always I've been taking on something else that already exists. So I deliberately haven't gone through other versions or even old line drawings. "I'm fascinated by the previous incarnations but will try not to compare.

My intention is to be as close to my first impression of her," Anderson explains, adding that she will end her moratorium after seeing her own performance. The actress has not seen images of a Miss Havisham to follow her own, played by Helena Bonham Carter in a film version of Great Expectations to be released next year. Media captionStars of the BBC's new adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations on the story's continuing relevance When told that Bonham Carter is festooned by cobwebs and will be something of a Hannibal Lecteresque monster , Anderson says: "I'm not a purist - there's room for all of it!" She adds: "I'm sure there'll be positives and negatives about both adaptations from all perspectives." While Miss Havisham's physical appearance seems at the heart of on-screen portrayals, her character and story are important. She declares that "love is death" and seems hell bent on revenge - but is a figure to be pitied, says Anderson. "Her personal pain is played out and at times she is an absolutely heartbroken mess," says the actress.

In equal measure she brands Miss Havisham "psychotically manipulative", a woman who has the power to damage both Pip and her adopted daughter Estella. Anderson adds that this character's tragic side needs to be explored alongside her scheming nature "to avoid losing the television audience really quickly". Period roles Returning to the theme of being a young Havisham, the actress explains that it makes her relatively close in age to the grown-up Pip. "There is still hope for her, which makes it interesting not having her portrayed as an old hag." After years as sceptical FBI agent Dana Scully, Anderson, who spent some of her childhood in the UK, has recently made a name for herself in period pieces. Image caption Estella and Pip are enmeshed in the web of bitterness spun by Miss Havisham She garnered a Bafta nomination for playing Lady Dedlock in Dickens' Bleak House, and was almost unrecognisable as brothel owner Mrs Castaway in The Crimson Petal and The White. "You can write that down! It's good to know it's working," laughs Anderson when told of her ability to transform. She says there may be more costume roles, should they make her "feel I can contribute something".

As for a return of The X-Files, Anderson says it is all down to US network Fox. "If Fox are the gods, then it's in the lap of the gods," says the actress who brings a touch of youthful bloom to one of literature's most enduring characters. Great Expectations begins on Tuesday 27 December at 21:00 GMT on BBC One and continues on 28 and 29 December. Great Expectations: Miss Havisham given 'youthful' air - BBC News BBC News Great Expectations: Miss Havisham given 'youthful' air By Michael Osborn Arts and Entertainment reporter, BBC News 24 December 2011 Close share panel Image caption Gillian Anderson portrays Miss Havisham as both tragic and consumed by the need for revenge Tortured, ghostly, eternal bride-to-be Miss Havisham is returning in a fresh screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' literary classic Great Expectations. The wealthy heiress, who was jilted on her wedding day and lived as a recluse for decades afterwards, haunts her tumbledown mansion clad in a dusty matrimonial gown.

Miss Havisham - with her white matted hair and wedding feast table preserved in cobwebs - has been played by older actresses in previous major incarnations. Joan Hickson played her at the age of 75 in 1981, while Anne Bancroft was cast in a 1998 modern reworking of Dickens's story at the age of 67. But for the new take on Great Expectations she is portrayed by Gillian Anderson, who at 43 is the youngest screen star to play the woman who casts a huge shadow over the life of Pip, hero of the tale. "Dickens doesn't qualify Miss Havisham's age specifically. If you add up the numbers at the time, it makes sense she would have been about 37," explains Anderson. HAVISHAMS ON FILM Helena Bonham Carter - 2012 (bottom right) The US-born star has no concerns that she is too young for the role. "This is me, at this age, this actress being hired for a particular reason and honouring that.

I'm not going to say: 'I'm not doing this because you should have hired an older actress.'" Her unnerving interpretation of the tragic yet cruel Havisham is ghostly, ashen-faced and becomes craggier as the story progresses - but did not rely on any ageing prosthetics. Anderson's transformation took less than two hours when Havisham was shown at her most decayed. "I had an idea for a grey which I didn't think existed," says Anderson of her contribution to the character's look. "There was a specific grey I felt her hair should be, which they were able to find. It's kind of opaque and translucent but at the same time holds light. It's not white, it's not too grey, it's just this middle non-colour." Anderson's Havisham floats disconcertingly around her mothballed home, where the clocks are stopped at the moment when she was jilted and her wedding cake is being feasted on by mice. Her lips are desiccated and she claws her skin at moments of stress, while dark circles frame her eyes.

'Heartbroken mess' The actress, known for her long-running role in The X-Files, maintains that she did not go back to previous portrayals of Miss Havisham for guidance. "My fear is always I've been taking on something else that already exists. So I deliberately haven't gone through other versions or even old line drawings. "I'm fascinated by the previous incarnations but will try not to compare. My intention is to be as close to my first impression of her," Anderson explains, adding that she will end her moratorium after seeing her own performance. The actress has not seen images of a Miss Havisham to follow her own, played by Helena Bonham Carter in a film version of Great Expectations to be released next year.

Media captionStars of the BBC's new adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations on the story's continuing relevance When told that Bonham Carter is festooned by cobwebs and will be something of a Hannibal Lecteresque monster , Anderson says: "I'm not a purist - there's room for all of it!" She adds: "I'm sure there'll be positives and negatives about both adaptations from all perspectives." While Miss Havisham's physical appearance seems at the heart of on-screen portrayals, her character and story are important. She declares that "love is death" and seems hell bent on revenge - but is a figure to be pitied, says Anderson. "Her personal pain is played out and at times she is an absolutely heartbroken mess," says the actress. In equal measure she brands Miss Havisham "psychotically manipulative", a woman who has the power to damage both Pip and her adopted daughter Estella. Anderson adds that this character's tragic side needs to be explored alongside her scheming nature "to avoid losing the television audience really quickly". Period roles Returning to the theme of being a young Havisham, the actress explains that it makes her relatively close in age to the grown-up Pip.

"There is still hope for her, which makes it interesting not having her portrayed as an old hag." After years as sceptical FBI agent Dana Scully, Anderson, who spent some of her childhood in the UK, has recently made a name for herself in period pieces. Image caption Estella and Pip are enmeshed in the web of bitterness spun by Miss Havisham She garnered a Bafta nomination for playing Lady Dedlock in Dickens' Bleak House, and was almost unrecognisable as brothel owner Mrs Castaway in The Crimson Petal and The White. "You can write that down! It's good to know it's working," laughs Anderson when told of her ability to transform. She says there may be more costume roles, should they make her "feel I can contribute something". As for a return of The X-Files, Anderson says it is all down to US network Fox. "If Fox are the gods, then it's in the lap of the gods," says the actress who brings a touch of youthful bloom to one of literature's most enduring characters. Great Expectations begins on Tuesday 27 December at 21:00 GMT on BBC One and continues on 28 and 29 December.

Behind the scenes on 'Great Expectations' - Telegraph Culture Behind the scenes on 'Great Expectations' A thoroughly unpleasant Pip; a younger Miss Havisham; a completely new ending. What the Dickens is happening on the set of Mike Newell’s ‘Great Expectations’? Young Pip (Toby Irvine) and Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) Photo: Johan Persson Director (Mike Newell) Photo: Johan Persson By John Preston 6:30AM GMT 30 Oct 2012 It’s a grey March morning in a disused razor-blade factory in west London and Helena Bonham Carter is being set on fire. With her dress ablaze and her hair crackling, she staggers about knocking over glasses and plates before falling to the floor. Then, after a protracted bout of shuddering, she expires. A tall man wearing a beret looks on thoughtfully. “Mmm,” he says. “I thought that was very good.

But let’s go again and see if we can make the flames even bigger.” Before we go any further, I suppose I’d better point out that it’s not actually Helena Bonham Carter who’s set on fire – it’s a stunt woman pretending to be her. That said, the hand the real Bonham Carter proffers between takes has been transformed into a blackened claw, her face is thick with soot and there’s an eye-wateringly acrid smell rising off the singed remains of her wedding dress. Bonham Carter is playing Miss Havisham in a new film version of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, written by David Nicholls, directed by Mike Newell (the man in the beret) and starring, as they say, a dazzling array of British talent (Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, Jeremy Irvine, David Walliams, Holliday Grainger and Sally Hawkins). Over the years, cinematic Miss Havishams have come in all sorts of guises, ranging from the mildly deranged to the screamingly bonkers. But however mad they are, they all tend to be very old, with hair — and skin — so white they look as if they’ve fallen into a vat of talcum powder.

Helena Bonham Carter is 46, and there’s something disconcerting about seeing her in Miss Havisham’s bridal gown. It must, I suggest, be chastening for any actress to be told that you’re the right age to play her. Bonham Carter nods so vigorously she dislodges several layers of soot. Related Articles Helena Bonham Carter plays Miss Havisham in new Great Expectations film 21 Oct 2012 “It was like a slap in the face,” she says. “I thought Jesus, give us a chance. But then Mike told me, don’t panic, if you read the book she’s actually in her forties — in other words exactly the same age as me.” If this helped to put Bonham Carter’s mind at rest, she also had to be convinced that the world really needed another film of Great Expectations. After all, there had been six movie versions already, most notably David Lean’s 1946 classic with John Mills. There have also been innumerable TV series, and even a musical version written by former Radio 1 DJ, Mike Read. Surely that’s more than enough to keep anyone happy?

“I know what you mean… I met Mike Newell for a coffee in Hampstead and we talked about my playing Miss Havisham. The more we talked, the more fascinated I became. Then I went back to the book and I found there were all these different strands to her that I wanted to try to bring out.” After she went home, Bonham Carter was so fixated by the idea that she sat down and wrote a long essay about Miss Havisham — which she sent to Newell. “I could have got a first at Oxford with that bloody thing. But I really did become obsessed. She really is an incredible character. Someone who has been jilted at the altar and who raises this young girl — Estella — to revenge herself on men. I kept wondering how does anyone end up being so psychologically grief-struck? In a way she reminded me of my great-grandmother who was someone nobody ever said No to. My idea was that when Miss Havisham gets jilted, this is the first time anyone refused her anything and she didn’t have any way of coping with it.” All this obsessiveness made Mike Newell very happy.

A tall, patrician figure with a rather old-fashioned military bearing — despite the beret – he had long dreamed of directing a Dickens adaptation. With a CV that includes Four Weddings and a Funeral (the highest-grossing British film in history) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which made £580million at the box office), he’s in the rare position of being able to make almost any film he wants. Originally, he planned to make a movie of Dombey and Son. But this came to grief and he looked around for something else. "Then someone told me there was this good script of Great Expectations floating about by David Nicholls…” In 2008, shortly after finishing his novel, One Day, Nicholls had been asked by producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlson if he would adapt the book. Just like Bonham Carter, Nicholls had his doubts — at least to begin with. “Great Expectations has always been my favourite novel,” he says. “When I first read it as a teenager, I really saw myself in Pip. And I’ve always drawn on it in my own books – my first novel, Starter for Ten, in particular has lots of allusions to it.

I think it’s the greatest coming-of-age novel ever written, and it strikes a chord with all of us — especially men — when we look at our younger selves: at our foolish aspirations and our desire to be something that we’re not.” It didn’t take long for Newell and Nicholls to realise they had similar ideas about the book. For Newell, the key element that had been missing from previous film adaptations was the fact that, as he puts it, this is “a story about two abused and emotionally damaged people. On the one hand you have Estella, who has been corrupted by Miss Havisham, and on the other you have Pip, the narrator, who in his own way is every bit as disturbed.” Normally, of course, Pip isn’t played as disturbed at all, but as a tremendous goody two-shoes, albeit one in the grip of frenzied social ambition. However, Newell felt this was a hopeless oversimplification — and he remembered reading an account of an annual conference of Dickens specialists who had taken a vote on what was the most pertinent question anyone could ask about Great Expectations.

“The question they all decided on was, ‘Why is Pip such a s---?’ And it’s an absolutely brilliant question because it cuts right to the heart of the novel. The more you examine it, the more you realise that Pip often behaves in an extremely unpleasant way. Just like Estella, he’s been bent out of shape by his upbringing. What’s really fascinating is that in many ways Pip is a self-portrait of Dickens. It’s as if Dickens was really coming clean about himself. About his relations with his family and about being prepared to do anything to get ahead.” Several years — and many drafts — later, the money has been raised and the cameras are finally turning. It seems strangely apt that a version of Great Expectations with a much sharper edge to it than usual should be being filmed in a disused razor-blade factory. Once, this Art Deco masterpiece on the Great West Road was Gillette’s European headquarters. But now the interior has been transformed into a huge Victorian street scene, complete with ankle-deep mud, assorted livestock and an array of extras decked out in carefully tattered garments. Pip, as played by Jeremy Irvine, is about to arrive in London for the first time.

Before he steps out into the mud, Irvine sits in his caravan musing on Pip’s character flaws. “For him, the desire to be a gentleman is everything,” he says. “This isn’t some little game he’s playing. He’s been seriously abused as a child and in this version, it’s real domestic abuse at its most violent. Nobody has been kind to him and this has really affected his view of the world.” Irvine knows a thing or two about ambition – and about thwarted ambition. Two years ago, he was playing a tree at the RSC and dreaming of non-arborial roles. “I’d spent a year out of work before that and I’d only ever made one small TV series. When people asked what I did for a living, I didn’t really feel I could say I was an actor.” Then he was asked to audition for a new film Steven Spielberg was making called War Horse. Irvine got the part, and hasn’t been out of work since. “It’s been very strange.

In a way, it’s given me a useful insight into playing Pip because I’ve seen for myself how quickly someone’s life can be transformed, and how people’s attitudes can change.” Today, Pip is off to see his lawyer Mr Jaggers to learn about his inheritance. Or rather he will be just as soon as Robbie Coltrane, who’s playing Jaggers, is finished in make-up. “You’ve been to see Jeremy, have you?” Coltrane gives a long sigh. “Amazing looking, isn’t he? He’s so beautiful, you just wish you were gay.” With his hair in curlers and his body encased in a large frock-coat, Coltrane stares glumly at his reflection in the dressing-room mirror. “So, it’s come to this,” he says. “62, and I’m in curlers. “Still, at least it’s in a good cause. After 10 happy and very lucrative years playing Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, it’s such a joy to play a total b------ like Jaggers. He’s like the Godfather, totally amoral.” Coltrane’s phone rings. “That’s probably Hollywood to offer me a huge script,” he says.

Then he looks down. “Oh no it’s not. It’s Jools Holland — how cool is that? He’s a big Art Deco fan like me. I think he wants to look around this building.” Meanwhile in a vast, chilly concrete room hung with spider’s webs and faded velvet curtains, Bonham Carter’s double is still bursting into flames at the flick of a gas-tap. But even the stench and soot have failed to dent the actress’s enthusiasm for playing Miss Havisham. “I’ve had a field day on this,” she says. She’s spent a lot of time researching osteoporosis, reasoning that anyone who spent 16 years indoors with the curtains drawn would be affected. And, not surprisingly, given that she lives with director Tim Burton, she’s paid attention to the fairy-tale aspects of the story. “There’s a lot of Cinderella in there. Miss Havisham only has one shoe on when she hears that she’s been jilted, so she’s always going to have one shoe on and one shoe off. I also had this idea that her veil should grow longer through the film, like Rapunzel — but Mike decided it was a bit much.” Dickens famously wrote two endings for the book.

In the original, Pip and Estella meet by chance in Piccadilly, talk briefly, then go their separate ways. But Dickens’s friend and fellow writer, Wilkie Collins, complained this was far too downbeat, so he wrote a new one, in which Pip and Estella are romantically reunited and live happily ever after. The trouble is this doesn’t sit plausibly with what we know about their characters. Just as the ending of the novel doesn’t really work, so the various film versions have also come unstuck. However, Newell and Nicholls believe they have hit on a resolution. “Dickens is not a great writer of love stories,” says Nicholls. “But he’s wonderful on the pain of unrequited love. What we’ve tried to do is to make it work as a love story without sentimentalising the book. Have we succeeded? Well, there’s only one way to find out.” ‘Great Expectations’ is released on November 30 This article also appeared in SEVEN magazine, free with the Sunday Telegraph. Follow us on Twitter @TelegraphSeven Great Expectations (2012) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title.

Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor. Director: a list of 33 titles created 05 Jan 2012 a list of 32 titles created 10 Apr 2012 a list of 24 titles created 31 Jan 2013 a list of 32 titles created 20 Sep 2013 a list of 44 titles created 28 Sep 2013 Search for " Great Expectations " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations. See more awards » Videos Great Expectations (TV Mini-Series 2011) Drama The orphan Pip becomes a gentleman when his life is transformed by a mystery benefactor.

Stars: Douglas Booth, Jack Roth, Ray Winstone Modernization of Charles Dickens classic story finds the hapless Finn as a painter in New York pursuing his unrequited and haughty childhood love. Director: Alfonso Cuarón Great Expectations (TV Movie 1999) Drama A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor. Director: Julian Jarrold A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor. Director: Graham McLaren Prepare for a life of great expectations. See more » Genres: Rated PG-13 for some violence including disturbing images | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 8 November 2013 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Grandes Esperanças See more » Filming Locations: $88,500 (USA) (8 November 2013) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Helena Bonham Carter stated in an interview that she wore only one shoe for the filming of Great Expectations, as in the book, Dickens described Miss Havisham as wearing only one shoe.

See more » Goofs At the very beginning when Pip is running towards the camera he steps into a muddy hole where there seems to be large wide modern tyre marks. See more » Quotes Jaggers : Estella is not the spider's reward. Estella is his punishment. Pip : And you arranged it. Written by Johann Strauss Sr. (as Johann Strauss I) Performed by Christian Pollack & Slovak Sinfonietta Well-Planned Adaptation That Loses its Way a Little Towards the End 28 February 2014 | by l_rawjalaurence (London) – See all my reviews Thematically speaking, Mike Newell's GREAT EXPECTATIONS depicts a world in which money talks: where rich n'er-do-wells such as Bentley Drummle (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) manage to find the girls of their choice, while fundamentally good people such as Pip (Toby/ Jeremy Irvine) end up unlucky. To survive in this world, Pip has to shed his humanity; this is especially evident in his offhand treatment of Joe Gargery (Jason Flemyng), when the blacksmith comes to visit him in London.

Likewise Estella (Helena Barlow/ Holliday Granger) is brought up in a world where any display of emotion or human feeling is considered weak; hence she believes it is her destiny to marry Bentley, even though the couple are not in love with one another. The quintessential representative of this rapacious world is Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane), who believes that everything - including human beings - are to be bought and sold for money. Hence Joe Gargery should be happy to accept twenty-five guineas in exchange for Pip. Unless you've got money, you'll not have any Great Expectations. Newell's film is also very good at depicting the relationships between Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) - although somewhat young for the role, Bonham Carter comes across as a fundamentally vindictive person, who enjoys playing with Estella and Pip's feelings in revenge for her own frustrations at being jilted on her wedding-day several years previously. As with most BBC- inspired costume dramas, the sense of place is beautifully evoked, even though Jim Clay's production designs; nineteenth-century London is a teeming, threatening world in which self-interest prevails.

This is contrasted with the rural Kent coast where Joe and his sister (Sally Hawkins), a lonely world of sprawling landscapes and russet sunsets. Perhaps the only criticism that might be leveled at this adaptation is the fact that David Nicholls' screenplay runs out of steam somewhat: the plot-details are rather hurriedly wrapped up in the last half-hour at the expense of characterization and atmosphere. This is a shame, as it deflects out attention from the developing relationship between Pip and Abel Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes), which proves beyond doubt that compassion is far more significant than money to ensure human survival. 4 of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Gillian Anderson on ‘X-Files,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Great Expectations’ - The Daily Beast She Wants to Believe Gillian Anderson on ‘X-Files,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Great Expectations’ Gillian Anderson, famous for 'The X-Files,' stuns as Miss Havisham in Sunday’s 'Great Expecations.' She tells Jace Lacob about turning down 'Downton Abbey,' her British accent—and possibly playing Scully again.

03.28.12 8:45 AM ET Gillian Anderson is no stranger to strange worlds. The former star of The X-Files , which became a worldwide hit and spawned two feature films, Anderson has, for now anyway, traded in Dana Scully’s FBI-issued handgun and severe suits for the tight-laced corsets and flowing frocks of such period dramas as Bleak House, The House of Mirth, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, The Crimson Petal and the White, Moby Dick, and Any Human Heart, in which she played a deliciously conniving Wallace Simpson, complete with a false nose. But it’s Anderson’s jaw-dropping turn as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations , which airs Sunday evening on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic after a three-night run in December on BBC One, that erases any trace of Scully’s bravado. An Anderson role in a period piece seems de rigueur these days: she was also very nearly in ITV’s critically acclaimed costume drama Downton Abbey , but turned down an offer to play Lady Cora Crawley, a role that went to fellow American Elizabeth McGovern.

“They’re still mad at me,” Anderson told The Daily Beast. “Every time I see [creator] Julian Fellowes, he says, ‘Why?’ I’m very finicky.” It’s no surprise that after her legendary turn as the emotionally haunted Lady Dedlock in Andrew Davies’s 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, which earned her Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominations, Anderson has a fascination with severe or extreme characters. In Great Expectations, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel by Sarah Phelps and directed by Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones), she stars as the malevolent and tragic Miss Havisham, whose blackened heart leads her to destroy the innocence of young Pip (Douglas Booth) and Estella (Vanessa Kirby), and doom whatever chance of love either has. Todd Antony / Courtesy of BBC Pictures There was much grumbling in the British press about Anderson being the youngest actress to play Miss Havisham, who is traditionally portrayed as a skeletal old woman still dressed in the tattered vestiges of her wedding gown, clutching at the last shreds of her youth, while already standing in her grave.

(Helena Bonham Carter will play the role in a feature film version of Great Expectations, out later this year.) “I appreciate the purists out there who have studied Dickens,” said Anderson, elegantly dressed in a flowing white blouse and gray skirt, and seated in an empty banquet room at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena. “But the facts are, from my understanding, Miss Havisham is around 50. That is not far from 43, which is what I am. They keep talking about me being the absolute youngest, when actually the actress who played her in David Lean’s version was 46.” “I expected when I kept reading this stuff that I was going to read that she was 75,” she said of Martita Hunt, who played the wild-haired Miss Havisham in the 1946 classic. “They just have to harp on something.” Indeed, by making Miss Havisham closer to Pip’s age, the production has heightened the sense of tension, both sexual and psychological, between the two characters. “She’s not an old crow and fawning after these children, which would end up being really creepy,” said Anderson.

Likewise, an additional patina of tragedy is added to the deeply disturbed character, whom Anderson imbues with a blend of ghostly transparency and obsessive madness. Pip telling her that she could have filled her decrepit home, Satis House, with children of her own cuts even deeper—she still could choose to open herself up to love. Instead, her downfall is that she can’t let go of the poison in her heart or the heartbreak in her past. Anderson herself is more or less a Dickens novice. Her experience of the author, who would be celebrating his 200th birthday this year, is limited to her own work in adaptations of Great Expectations and Bleak House. “I can’t remember if it was high school or college, but I attempted to read A Tale of Two Cities and I don’t recall getting through it,” she said. “I don’t think I gave him more thought until he came into my life in this respect. One of the only things that I have regrets about in my life is my experience of school and education. I wish I had known how important it was to pay attention … My first foray into a lot of the classics has been through my work.

It’s only after falling in love with the screenplay or adaptation that I’ve then gone on to read the novels themselves.” Anderson was a bit of a teenage hellion. A far cry from the sleek and sophisticated star these days, the teenage Anderson dyed her hair multiple colors and had her nose pierced. (In an infamous anecdote, she was arrested on the eve of her graduation for trying to glue the gates of her school shut, but according to an interview in US Weekly, she got off with community service and spent a week cleaning a YMCA.) Born in Chicago, she was shuttled with her family around the world for much of her childhood: a stint in Puerto Rico as a baby, a childhood spent in London, and then, at age 11, her formative years spent in Grand Rapids, Mich., where her English accent marked her as an instant outsider. That accent still turns up on occasion, particularly when she appears on British talk shows like The Graham Norton Show or Parkinson, where Anderson deploys the cut-glass tones of one of her well-heeled characters. On this day, however, there is not a trace of Britannia in Anderson’s speech.

“When I’m in London, my partner’s British, my kids are British, and I’m surrounded by Brits,” she said, laughing. “It’s near to impossible for me to maintain my American accent in the midst of that. My first language was with a British accent … I could understand why it would be confusing for people in the States who aren’t used to me with a British accent, but I didn’t lose my British accent until well into college. Even when I started doing The X-Files, I was only a few years away from having decidedly losing it. It’s completely natural to me. When I try, in London, to not speak with a British accent or to keep it American, I just sound like a f--king idiot. It turns into some weird eurotrash thing.” It was Anderson who raised the specter of The X-Files during the interview. After playing skeptical FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in Fox’s science-fiction thriller for nine seasons and costarring with David Duchovny in two spinoff feature films, 1998’s The X-Files and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Anderson was widely believed to have finished with the character and the alien-themed franchise.

Not so. “Not at all,” she said. “If a good script comes along for another film, then I’m up for it and so is David. So is [creator] Chris [Carter]. I don’t see any reason not to do it if the script is good and Fox wants to go ahead and put the money behind it. Now I don’t know if there’s a script, I don’t know whether Fox is even remotely interested, so it’s completely out of my hands. But I’d be up for it.” Still, the entrenchment of Scully in pop culture has had its potential pitfalls, given how long Anderson portrayed the religious medical doctor-turned-FBI-field agent—she appeared in all but four of the show’s 202 episodes—and there was the risk that the actress could be pigeonholed afterward. “There was definitely that concern coming off the series and wanting to do as many different things as possible,” Anderson said.

“There is an argument that every time I decide to do another [X-Files] feature, it complicates that even more in that it solidifies me in the audience’s mind more as that character … [But] I’m not going to choose not to do it because people might be closed-minded.” Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily DigestStart and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat SheetA speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).

Question: Who is to play Miss Havisham in the 2012 film version of Dickens' Great Expectations'?
Answer: HELENA BONHAM CARTER