Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
Director
Starring
Last On
09:10-11:50
Sun 7th Jan 2018 130m
Sony Movies
Synopsis
The actors in any film of a novel by Charles Dickens have to guard against caricature - so extreme in vice or virtue are his characters. However, there's not a hint of parody in this bustling, personality-packed account. Young Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam) is the innocent at large in a world controlled by Uncle Ralph Nickleby (Christopher Plummer), one of the most evil men in English literature. First there is the tour to the lower depths of educational hell at Dotheboys Hall, run by Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent) and his wife (Juliet Stevenson). But then there is light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of the charitable Cheeryble brothers (Timothy Spall and Gerard Horan), the hope of love with Madeline Bray (Anne Hathaway) and acting with a touring company that has the astonishing Dame Edna Everage as co-proprietor Mrs Crummles. Nicholas's protection of the abused Smike (Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell) is still as noble an act as we're likely to see while the undermining of Uncle Ralph by his alcoholic servant, Newman Noggs (Tom Courtenay), is a disloyalty we can cheer. Adapted and directed by Douglas McGrath, the original tale has been slightly - and necessarily - truncated, but this is still a treat.