Oliver Twist ** (2005, Barney Clark, Ben Kingsley, Harry Eden, Edward Hardwicke, Leanne Rowe, Jamie Foreman, Jeremy Swift) – Classic Movie Review 2686

Let’s Twist again! Or maybe not?

Producer-director Roman Polanski comes up with a disappointment in 2005 – a pedestrian, plodding and uninspired movie version of the classic Charles Dickens tale, but nevertheless with some excellent ingredients to recommend it.

Tending towards the controversial 1948 Alec Guinness interpretation, Ben Kingsley is first class as thief master Fagin, some of the character acting’s a vintage delight (especially Edward Hardwicke’s Mr Browlow, Alun Armstrong’s Mr Fang and Paul Brooke’s Mr Grimwig).

And the film certainly often looks impressive in Pawel Edelman’s handsome cinematography and Allan Starski’s attractive production designs (which were inspired by the work of famed illustrator Gustave Doré, though he didn’t illustrate any Dickens novels.)

But the problem is that Polanski reveals no real good reason for re-filming this much-filmed beloved British classic. It doesn’t feel like a Polanski film, the work of an individualist auteur. Some of the other main performances don’t work well at all. Barney Clark is inspid as English Victorian orphan Oliver, Harry Eden dull as his new pickpocket friend the Artful Dodger, Leanne Rowe all wrong as Nancy and Jamie Foreman hammy as Bill Sikes.

The problem, though, is mainly that Ronald Harwood’s screenplay is scrappy, finding room for naff lines like ‘get orf my land!’, extraneous characters, infelicitous excisions and unnecessary additions. Where’s the back story about Oliver’s mother? Why does Oliver meet up with Fagin in jail at the end? It’s just not at all good. And there’s too much of Rachel Portman’s score, which is unsubtle and poor.

It ends up being like a glossy, reverential BBC serial without the TV miniseries extended running time to give it depth and substance (though it does run 130 minutes), and of course it even misses the songs from the musical Oliver!

Also in the cast are Ian McNeice, Lewis Chase, Jeremy Swift (Mr Bumble), Mark Strong, Frances Cuka, Chris Overton, Michael Heath, Gillian Hanna, James Babson, Peter Copely, Jake Curran, Andy de la Tour, Ophelia Lovibond, Liz Smith, Timothy Bateson and Joseph Tremain.

It was filmed on location in the Czech Republic and at Prague’s Barrandov Studios there.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2686

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