Review of Great Expectations (1998) by Christine C — 01 Feb 2008

Alfonso Cuaron rendition of Charles Dickens Great Expectations is an elegant and picturesque movie. This movie is beautifully crafted, stunning setting and soundtrack. Absolutely love Patrick Doyle's Great Expectations the score, Kissing in the rain is one of my favorite tracks.

I love the scenes in the crumbling and overgrown mansion and the reoccurring motif of green, green symbolising the main themes of Dicken's story of envy and jealously. A little biased because green is my favorite colour and perhaps adds to my appeal to Edouard Lock's Amelie.

Lock has used shades of green as a means of cinematic impressionism. Perhaps Cuaron has also used colour not purely as aesthetic purpose but also an expression of thematic content of the narrative. The film seems like contemporary fable, the setting changed from 19th century England to contemporary Florida and New York.

However, despite the setting transition the film preserves the themes of the Victorian-era romance such as unrequited love, the conquering of class barriers, and the mysteries of fate and destiny.