Mike Newell’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS has a new trailer and it really plays up the casting of HARRY POTTER alumni. Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, and Robbie Coltrane feature prominently in the new UK trailer for the romantic drama. Carter looks her usual self: Gothic, pale, and slightly off. Fiennes has a scraggly, psychotic look in his eye reminiscent of Hugh Jackman in the LES MISERABLES trailer. And Coltrane, well he looks very un-Hagrid.
Newell is coming off the awful PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME and therefore needs a quality movie to regain his directing chops. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE was one of my least favorite entries in the fantasy series, but Newell did make good use of the dark scenery of Hogwarts. This film has the same dark feel to it, which fits the story perfectly.
Plot: Young orphan Pip is given a chance to rise from his humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Moving through London’s class ridden world as a gentleman, Pip uses his new found position to pursue the beautiful Estella; a spoilt heiress he’s loved since childhood. Yet the shocking truth behind his great fortune will have devastating consequences for everything he holds dear.
Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger play Pip and Estella. The entire cast looks solid and this could be one of the better adaptations of the novel. It will be released in England at the end of November, but there is currently no US release scheduled.