Year of Release: 2005Country of Origin: UK, Czech Republic, France, Italy
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Barney Clark, Ben Kingsley
Plot outline: An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master (IMDb).
It's probably not a good idea to remake a movie of a story that has been made and remade into movies so many times before - with at least two of them are of the finest quality. So, unless the story or storytelling is considerably better or different than its predecessors, the movie would probably face some difficulties to grab and impress the audience. I think this is what happens with this new adaptation of Oliver Twist. It's beautifully made, well told and well acted, but somehow it doesn't spark our emotion. What's missing? I think maybe because the important parts of the story are left out, e.g. the story of Oliver's birth and origins, the story of a mysterious man named Monks and the fact that Mr. Brownlow is related to him. I think Mr. Polanski intentionally cut these parts out to shift the focus more toward Fagin and the issues of forgiveness and redemption. The overall feeling of this movie is like Oliver Twist with a substantial tone of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables - it ends with an emotional scene of Oliver Twist visiting Fagin in prison on the eve of his hanging.
My judgement: ** out of 4 stars
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