Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

2007 ""
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

7.3 | 2h56m | en | Adventure

Oliver is born into poverty and misfortune - the son of an unmarried mother, who dies shortly after his birth. He is soon delivered to the workhouse, where the cruel Mr. Bumble oversees children tormented by starvation and suffering. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he finds himself cast out and forced to make his own way in the world...

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7.3 | 2h56m | en | Adventure , Family | More Info
Released: December. 18,2007 | Released Producted By: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , BBC Country: United Kingdom Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008m6b8
Synopsis

Oliver is born into poverty and misfortune - the son of an unmarried mother, who dies shortly after his birth. He is soon delivered to the workhouse, where the cruel Mr. Bumble oversees children tormented by starvation and suffering. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he finds himself cast out and forced to make his own way in the world...

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Cast

Tom Hardy , Sophie Okonedo , Julian Rhind-Tutt

Director

Grenville Horner

Producted By

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , BBC

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Reviews

studioAT So beloved are the Dickens novels that each new adaption of them sees fresh scrutiny. Everyone has an idea in their heads of how the characters should look/sound.I thought this mini series was OK, without ever being great. There are good portrayals, and others where I felt too many liberties had been taken.I liked Timothy Spall in his role of Fagin. He brought a fresh spin on it, that was engaging.It was a hit and miss adaption for me though on the whole.
LCShackley I feel sorry for anyone who makes his first acquaintance with Dickens' classic through this ill-conceived version that tampers irreparably with the original story.The first mistake was hiring a screenwriter best-known for work on a British soap to write the script. She felt obligated to make it more "hip" by inserting words and dialog that aren't appropriate to the time period, and by completely twisting parts of the plot and some of its main characters. For instance, the comic subplot of Bumble and Corny leaves out some of the best scenes, and instead "sexes up" the Widow Corny. And Oliver himself is changed from a lost innocent into a smart-mouthed punk. (PS - I know that Corny is spelled with an "e" but IMDb's spell- checker keeps changing it.)The casting doesn't help. Timothy Spall, who is wonderful in almost everything he does, never seems to settle in to the character of Fagin, and the make-up and hair artists make him look like an ugly fat woman most of the time. Nancy has changed color, Bill Sykes is nothing more than a yobbo, not the looming villain so well-portrayed by Oliver Reed in the musical version. Even the reliable Edward Fox turns in a two-dimensional performance as Brownlow.The music score is also horrendous, jumping from style to style but never anything remotely Victorian. (Electric guitar? Banjo? Steel drums?)I don't have a problem with making new versions of classics. I also don't have a problem with updating classics, as in WEST SIDE STORY or even Baz Luhrman's ROMEO + JULIET. But what we have in OLIVER TWIST is a warped classic, a hack's idea of making a great plot more palatable for the 21st-century audience. You can change the ambiance or the costumes, but don't give us a new story and claim it's a classic. This type of bilge is running rampant in current British productions (Wuthering Heights, Marple, etc.). Seek out an older version for something that resembles the original, or at least holds the original in high regard. The director and screenwriter for this production obviously see Dickens as raw material to be improved upon. The joke is on them.
jc-osms Not the greatest production of Dickens' classic, let down in the main by mixed acting and an over-intrusive musical score at odds with the period in which the drama is set. The casting is unusual to say the least, in particular a coloured actress plays Nancy and although Sophie Okonedo acts well she doesn't quite carry off the novelty. Also Gregor Fisher is unconvincing as Mr Bumble, Edward Fox barely registers any emotion in his part and Tom Hardy as Bill Sykes fails to demonstrate the innate psychopathy, indeed the way the part is played, you almost feel the director is straying dangerously close to glamourising and thus garnering sympathy for what is, on the page a yobbish brute. The whole is dominated by Timothy Spall's take on the Fagin part. For me he grossly overacts in a very mannered way and repels this viewer with some slightly distasteful mannerisms. Better are Sarah Lancashire as Bumble's selfish scheming wife and Rob Brydon in a fine comic turn as a judge with attitude but against that, the child acting is very poor, they merely seem to read their lines, certainly no Jack Wild here and the only really imaginative scenes are those where the murdered Nancy's ghost haunts Sykes as he takes Oliver hostage on his escape to the country and back. This was a made for TV mini-series and it shows. A great story reduced in the re-telling.
lc_peake The performances are excellent all around. Sophie Okonedo is a fine Nancy, so thoroughly believable as is Tom Hardy, Timothy Spall and Sarah Lancashire. The children playing Oliver and Dodger give subtle performances, so were obviously directed extremely well. I did not have any problems with the changes to the narrative and I know the novel well, but in the time constraints of the series, I thought the changes made sense. At first I thought the music surprising but very quickly I felt it suited the style of the story telling.Very fine effort from the BBC, they are so thorough with period dramas, I can't remember the last time they stuffed one up.