winles If you remove the wooden and god awful Charlie Hunnam, AND Barry Humphries in drag,then this is not a bad stab at NN. However you can't and so this chocolate box attempt is ruled out for me. Much better watch/buy the Royal Shakespeare Company version,it's well paced out over a long journey and captures Dickens novel exactly. It's obviously aimed at those viewers that need the plot simplifying,prettifying and generally sanitising. There are plenty of equal/better versions out there. You just have to take your pick,mine is as above the RSC version. Dickens novels are not (as some directors think) easy to film,this one just falls short for various reasons.

Jackson Booth-Millard I saw the trailer for this film, based on a story by Charles Dickens, at the cinema, and with many great names in the cast I was quite keen to see it. Basically the Nickleby family enjoy a comfortable life, until the death of the father (Andrew Havill), leaving them penniless and forcing the children to travel to London to get help from uncle Ralph (Christopher Plummer). He is only interested in separating the family, and with an immediate dislike for his nephew Nicholas, he sends him to work for the sadistic northern England boys' school owner Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent). While Ralph is using Nicholas's grown up sister Kate (Romola Garai) to get investors on side, also grown up, Nicholas Nickleby (Charlie Hunnam) teaches the children, but leaves after a massive disagreement of opinion concerning discipline and punishment with Squeers, and he takes young crippled Smike (Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell) with him. Smike does not have any memory of his life before Dotheboys' Hall, but he proves a good friend and ally to Nicholas, as they travel back to London to bring the Nickleby family back together. On their way however they meet Vincent Crummles (Nathan Lane), his "wife Mrs. Crummles, or Mr. Leadville (Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage) and their acting troupe and join them performing for a while. I don't remember much else after this, only that with the help of Ralph's friendly secretary Newman Noggs (Tom Courtenay), Nicholas and Kate reunite and go against their uncle, ultimately rising over adversity. Also starring Edward Fox as Sir Mulberry Hawk, Juliet Stevenson as Mrs. Squeers, Timothy Spall as Charles Cheeryble, Alan Cumming as Mr. Folair, Anne Hathaway as Madeline Bray, Gerard Horan as Ned Cheeryble, Kevin McKidd as John Browdie, Nicholas Rowe as Lord Verisopht, Sophie Thompson as Miss Lacreevy, Stella Gonet as Mrs. Nickleby, Philip 'Phil' Davis as Brooker, Harry Potter's David Bradley as Nigel Bray and Heather Goldenhersh as Fanny Squeers. I will be honest and say it was the cast more than anything that interested me, also I did not pay the fullest attention I could of to the story, but for what I did, it is I suppose a pretty good period drama. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Worth watching!

guy-bellinger Nearly everyone likes this film and I do too. But what amazed me the most is the prologue, one of the best I have ever seen (my favorite being the introducing sequence of 'Lord of War'). To do justice to this wonderful sequence I will adopt an unusual method: I will first provide the (shrewd) original text in bold type and have it followed by a description of the images that illustrate it in brackets:WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE LIGHT FIRST PIERCES THE DARK DAMPNESS IN WHICH WE HAVE WAITED? (A hand holding a newborn baby, well lit against a dark backdrop, raises it to the middle of the frame). WE ARE SLAPPED (The baby's buttocks get slapped) AND CUT LOOSE (the umbilical cord is cut).IF WE ARE LUCKY, SOMEONE IS THERE TO CATCH US AND PERSUADE US THAT WE ARE SAFE (Downward crane move to the ample foliage of lovely trees in the middle of the English countryside first, then to a happy couple sitting in the grass: the father lifts the baby at arm's length while the mother smiles. The crane move has now become lateral and spans the meadow).BUT ARE WE SAFE? WHAT HAPPENS IF, TOO EARLY, WE LOSE A PARENT? (A dead bird of prey can be seen lying in the green grass). THAT PARTY ON WHOM WE RELY FOR ONLY ... EVERYTHING! (The tracking shot goes on only to turn into another crane move - upward this time - climbing back up the foliage). WHY, WE ARE CUT LOOSE AGAIN AND WE WONDER, EVEN DREAD, WHOSE HANDS WILL CATCH US NOW (the camera passes a nest in which a mother bird is keeping watch over its dead fledgling. Fade to black).That is all. But Douglas McGrath has managed in very little time to synthesize all the halcyon days as well as all the insecurities of the green years. Now the narrative can start, for the director has put the spectator in the frame of mind appropriate to understand and identify with the main character. Nicholas Nickleby will never appear bland or one-dimensional as he could have had this prologue not existed. A little masterpiece both technically and stylistically speaking that deserves kudos.

Jim In Holland It's not bad - it's not the RSC production everyone unfairly compares it to, but it's as entertaining as a 2 hour version can be expected to be. Sound like faint praise, but really - keep your expectations honest and you'll enjoy it. I've sat through the RSC's 9-hour event (twice in the theater and I own the DVD set) and yes - it's a more faithful interpretation, but that doesn't diminish this version. I do have some issues with the casting, primarily Jaime Bell as Smike and Charlie Hunnam. Bell is just far too healthy, too good-looking to play the battered, pitiful Smike. Hunnam is just a bit too gee-whiz, too bright-eyed throughout - in a word, lightweight. It's an interesting balance in the way these two are portrayed; in the RSC plays, Nicholas is almost a step-parent, in the movie, more a brother; I do prefer the former balance.