A breathtaking East wind

pekinman

450  minutes of a film is a long time to have your breath taken away but that's what happened when I first watched this magnificent adaptation of my favorite Dickens novel 'Bleak House.'

I always liked the earlier version starring Denham Elliot, Diana Rigg and Peter Vaughan, but this new version, adapted by Andrew Davies is superlative to the former in every way. For one thing it is more complete. The earlier version left out several characters altogether and glossed over most of the high emotion.

I'm not always a fan of Davie's work but Bleak House is a masterpiece of screen adaptation, even better than his Moll Flanders, which has long been one of my old standbys for a rainy evening or two.

Anna Maxwell Martin looks unprepossessing with her whey-face and funny lisp, but quickly her strength and intelligence waylay any doubts as to her being nigh-perfect as Esther Sommerson.

The only minor quibble with her in this role is that she looks nothing like Gillian Anderson's Lady Dedlock or John Lynch's Captain Hawdon, Esther's parents. This hardly matters in the face of some of the greatest acting I've seen come out of England on film over many years, and that is saying something.

As an Illinoisian I am proud to claim the beautiful and brilliant Gillian Anderson as a fellow traveler, she is from Chicago. Her Lady Dedlock is fascinating and goddess-like yet possessing a deeply human spark that she has buried under years of keeping her dark secret.

Bleak House is about secrets. It is a deep story, full of tragedy and human comedy at once. The villains are vile, notably Charles Dance's Mr Tulkinghorn. It isn't that Mr Tulkinghorn is evil, we create evil or reject it, but that he is just a cold cold human being who lives solely by the law, the ever-increasing book of the law that weighs down the human spirit and kills in the end. This is the best thing Charles Dance has done.

The entire cast is beyond reproach, and with two classic performances by Burn Gorman, the very embodiment of Mr Guppy, and Pauline Collins' bird-like Miss Flyte, I can't imagine Bleak House ever being more perfectly cast.

Even the cat playing Mr Krook's Lady Jane is a brilliant actor. I love cats but this is the most butt-ugly feline I have ever laid eyes upon. She looks like a cross between a bulldog and a toilet bowl brush, hisses on cue, flops over and groans, all with perfect timing. She glares malevolently with great meaning and comprehension and appears in almost every episode. A great performance.

There are some powerfully emotional scenes, not in a manipulative sense but in a deep, spontaneous sense. Anna Maxwell Martin and Gillian Anderson are dynamite, and their one and only scene together is second only to Jo's Death in impact.

Being Dickens there is also some fine humor along the way. Alas, some villains are allowed to get away with their wickedness, like the vile Mr Smallweed (Phil Davis is horribly fabulous as the seedy old money-grubber) and the good suffer horribly. It's hard-hitting stuff, Bleak House, and very pertinent to our times.

The cinematography, music, costumes, everything are great.

I can't think of a greater Dickens film adaptation. If you love his books you will want this set. If you don't know Dickens but like A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim then this Bleak House may be the entryway to the deeper worlds of Charles Dickens.

score 10/10

pekinman 2 April 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2046766/