Review of Oliver Twist (2005) by Grant G — 17 Jul 2010
Paint by numbers oliver twist. Ben Kingsley as Fagin was very pantomimey and could have been anyone under the makeup, looked a bit rubbery, and he didn't make the part his own just copied off the stellar performance of Alec Guinness in the musical.
At least it's not too cringey- like the musical, but its too simplistic and the language isn't in keeping with the times 'can we have a little chat oliver?' and I don't think Nancy's death would be in the paper or that the article would name-drop all of them,this is just one of the plot implausibilities, and talking about those, I'm sad they got rid of the Dickensian 'he's actually one of the family' twist, haha, at the end.
The end is a bit rubbish also and just trails off, and Bill's hanging is very anticlimactic unlike in the musical. You get the feeling that this is a poor copy of the musical version without the singing and dancing and not bringing anything new or edgy or exciting to the tale.
If you want that watch the electrifying 2007 tv version.
This review of Oliver Twist (2005) was written by Grant G on 17 Jul 2010.
Oliver Twist has generally received positive reviews.
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