GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946)

Country: U.K.

Genre(s): Drama / Romance

Director: David Lean

Cast: John Mills / Tony Wagner / Jean Simmons

Plot

Pip, a poor boy from the moors, is raised to a station of wealth by a mysterious benefactor and pursues the lovely but seemingly uninterested Estella.

What I Liked

David Lean is revered as the master of British epic film.  But decades before the grandeur of “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” or “Doctor Zhivago” he made “Great Expectations,” a film that may not traverse continents or take on sweeping battle scenes, but still features impressive visuals and larger-than-life characters. The various characters that the always earnest Pip encounters, from honest and simple Joe to disturbed and bitter Miss Havisham to robust and ever-serious Mr. Jaggers, are the real story and power behind the film.

If the movie lacks the wide-lens outdoor cinematography of Lean’s later films (with the exception of the moors and graveyards early on), he still brings a unique majesty to the mostly indoor settings of “Great Expectations.”  Interestingly, each is closely associated with one of the film’s monumentally unique characters.  This is most notable in Miss Havisham’s rotting mansion, as haunted and darkly fascinating as the woman herself.  There is also, Mr. Jaggers’ stuffy office, Mr. Pocket’s fancy apartment, and the elegant ballrooms inhabited by the unattainable Estella.  

That each important role is played as close to perfection (including perfectly cast child actors Tony Wagner and Jean Simmons) as possible doesn't hurt either.  Keep an eye out for a startlingly young Alec Guinness as  Pip's rambunctious chum, Mr. Pocket.

“Great Expectations” may not be as flagrantly epic as “Zhivago” and the others, but it is nonetheless a majestic adaptation of a classic Dickens story, making its characters the centerpiece of a timeless drama.

What I Didn’t Like

*spoiler alert*

A very well executed movie by any standard, “Great Expectations” still has some flaws common to films of that day and age.  Most conspicuous is the quick ending.  With multiple sub-plots starting and stopping throughout the film’s length, and with the complicated relationship between Pip and Estella, it is disorienting how easily and abruptly the pair get together in the very final moments.  And then, immediately after the pair embrace, the credits roll.  No falling action, no explanation, nothing.  The end.

Also disrupting is the age of lead John Mills, who does an adept job portraying the adult Pip.  The problem is Pip is supposed to be in his late teens and early twenties during the latter half of the film and Mills was nearing his forties.  The crows’ feet around his eyes, lines in his forehead, and other signs of age can disorient, or at the very least distract, the viewer.

Most Memorable Scene

*spoiler alert*

The visual tone of the film changes ever so briefly when one of the central characters dies painfully in a sudden fire.  Instead of the soft, smoothly flowing camera movement of the rest of the movie, here the angles are elongated and warped, the cutting frenetic, and the entire visual aspect of the film distorted to horrific proportions, as befits the moment.  This is a shocking moment in the plot that needs to stand out and it does so thanks to the visceral edge the filmmakers create.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5