Nicholas Nickleby

Fair warning: I can't abide Charles Dickens, and Nicholas Nickleby is especially exemplary of everything that irks me about his work. Everyone in this tale of 19th century woe is either implausibly sweet and naive or absurdly ruthless and cruel without reason--inviting second-guessing to a distracting degree--especially the milksop title character (the over-earnest Charlie Hunnam) who at age 19 moves his widowed mother and sister from the quiet country cottage they can no longer afford to dirty, noisy, heartless London, seeking the support of a rich, odious uncle (Christopher Plummer). Innumerable hardships are slowly overcome as the uncle lands Nick a job under a cartoonishly callous orphanage schoolmaster, while practically whoring his sister out to rich friends. Why the Nicklebys cannot find any help or work in their beloved village is never explained, nor why Nicholas hasn't any marketable job skills. But while it's made with much care and affection for the source material (and Plummer is superb, creating a villain of complex humanity), Nicholas Nickleby ultimately fails to finesse something more sophisticated from its anachronous, black-and-white, Sunday school view of virtue, temperance, and integrity. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentary by director Douglas McGrath, the 29-minute making-of featurette “Creating a Classic,” the 16-minute “The Cast on the Cast” featurette with interviews from the day of the film's premiere, a multi-angle “View on the Set” feature for five scenes, a three-section photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a film that will be appreciated by Dickens fans.] (R. Blackwelder)