Nicholas Nickeby Movie Review:


The world of Charles Dickens has enchanted and entertained us for almost 200 years. Dickens lived during a time of desperation and struggle. This is evident in his classic novel, "Oliver Twist" and in the follow-up "Nicholas Nickleby". Dickens explored the treatment of youth in the 1830s. How they would be objectified, beaten, tortured and even killed if they didn’t heed to the wishes of vicious headmasters and even their relatives.

In the new cinematic adaptation to Dickens’ third full novel "Nicholas Nickleby", we find the title character, played by newcomer Charlie Hunnan, being forced to move his family in with his crooked uncle, Ralph Nickleby (Christopher Plummer). Uncle Ralph despises his destitute relatives and splits them apart. He sends Nicholas to teach a Dotheboys Hall for Orphan Boys. Nicholas makes a pact that he will one day reunite his family and they will have a life of their own. At Dotheboys, Nicholas meets Smike (Billy Elliot’s Jamie Bell) who he ends up saving from the wrath of the Dotheboys’ headmaster Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent). Together with Smike, Nicholas hatches a plan that would make his reunion dream come true. Just what will they have to do to accomplish such a pure plight.

"Nicholas Nickleby" isn’t the sharpest, wrenching or boldest pencil in the box. It is entertaining and there are some memorable moments but a lot of it seems watered down for the sake of time. I liked Hunnan, Broadbent, Plummer and Bell but there seemed to be a vacuum sucking the punch out of the film.

I remember those oodles of Jane Austen films that have been made in recent years and how they all seemed to have the same feel. It is strange that a rather powerful Dicken’s novel has been watered down to feel like one of those. I am not sure if the filmmakers were trying to make a film like the Jane Austen films but for me it seemed blatantly obvious that is what they were striving for.
This film should have been as powerful or at least tried to be as truly breathless as the darker moments in the 1968 film "Oliver!" For me the moment where Oliver says "Please sir may I have some more" is what a powerful Dickens moment should be like.

For as entertaining as the film is, I felt it didn’t do the literary classic justice.

(3 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

After the sad death of his father, Nicholas Nickleby (Hunnam), his mother and his sister Kate (Garai) are forced to give up their family home and travel to London to ask his Uncle Ralph Nickleby (Plummer) for help. His uncle finds Nicholas a job at a boy’s home in Yorkshire ran by Wackford Streep (Broadbent), who treated his students as badly as they bleak conditions they lived in but he befriends one of the boys can Smike (Bell) and tells them that life is better than this. As the conditions get worse, Nicholas and Smike run away and try and find jobs that will make them enough money to get the Nickleby’s back in their family home.

An all-star cast bring Charles Dickens’s classic novel to life on the silver screen.

There is one thing that can be counted on and that is that the British can do classic adaptations of period novels really well. This is one of Dickens’s best loved novels and the outstanding cast give it their all to bring the essence of his material to the big screen.

There are standout performances from Christopher Plummer as the greedy, self-obsessed Ralph Nickleby and Jim Broadbent as the evil, boy’s home headmaster with a passion for the cane Wackford Streep. In fact Broadbent’s portrayal of the character proves again that he is one of the best British character actors working today. There is also great support from Alan Cumming, Edward Fox, Nathan Lane and a scene stealing performance by Tom Courtney as Newman Noggs.

The young cast are also very good. Jamie Bell returns to form as Smike and shows that all the hoopla about his debut wasn’t unjustified after all. Romola Garai proves again that she is an actress to watch and Anne Hathaway does her best with a limited role.

There are two things that let the movie down however. The first is the story itself, which is faithful to the novel but seems to be full of too many Dickens’s stereotypes and similar storylines to stand out from his other novels. Secondly is Charlie Hunnam, who seems out of his depth amongst such an exceptional cast.

These small points aside, there is still much to enjoy in this movie. Douglas McGrath does an excellent job of capturing the period and the feel of the Dickensian era beautifully and the cast is top notch but I hope that tall hats never come back in fashion.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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