Nicholas Nickleby

United Artists
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courteney, Edward Fox, Barry Humphries, Nathan Lane, and Christopher Plummer.
Produced by Simon Channing Williams.
Written and Directed by Douglas McGrath.

I wouldn't have thought you could do a story by Charles Dickens in 2 hours and do it justice but this movie was terrific. Charlie Hunnam's Nickleby is a beautiful person to whom the darkest dirt of Dickensian England just cannot stick. His pure heart pulls multitudes of characters up out of the muck around him as Broadbent and Plummer try to pull them back down again.

Plummer is spectacular in his evilness as Nickleby's uncle. Also, in his incredible final scene, you see a wash of emotions cross his face as he comes to terms with all the evil he has wrought in the world. Nathan Lane and Barry Humphries are terrific in comic relief and I can only imagine how much of Alan Cumming was left on the cutting room floor. Personally, I also loved Anne Hathaway but her role was pretty small and mostly you just get to enjoy looking at her.

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