"GREAT EXPECTATIONS' Fulfilled
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Jan. 30, 1998
Dickens update is handsome, well acted, well written

EARLY IN "Great Expectations," this loose adaptation of the
Charles Dickens novel set in present-day Florida and New York
City, Anne Bancroft as Nora Dinsmoor (the Miss Havisham role)
posits the movie's philosophy.

Dinsmoor, a wealthy and eccentric Palm Beach spinster raising
Estella, her 11-year-old niece, advises young Finn, the Pip
character, on the treacherous terrain of love.

Referring to her beautiful niece, she tells Finn, "She'll only
break your heart." She goes on to predict, "And even though I
warn you and guarantee that the girl will only hurt you
terribly, you'll still pursue her." Then, framed in a great
Norma Desmond-like close-up that underscores Dinsmoor's
dramatic use of eyeliner, she practically cackles, "Ain't love
grand?"

The cynicism recalls another world-weary woman in the
magnificent Bancroft's repertoire, Mrs. Robinson in "The
Graduate." But it's not the cynicism that director Alfonso
Cuaron ( "A Little Princess" ) and writer Mitch Glazer mean to
emphasize. It's that Finn, or anyone with passion, will "still
pursue her." Passion may kill you, but it can't be stopped.

This is a mighty appealing philosophy and the filmmakers promote
it admirably in this handsome, well-acted, well-written and
beautifully directed movie.

Writer Glazer evidently has a feel for Dickens. He co-wrote the
Bill Murray comedy "Scrooged," based on "A Christmas Carol." He
works well with Cuaron, who is a master of the fluid camera.

Cuaron also uses music throughout the movie with striking
adeptness. His score is eclectic, including Iggy Pop singing
"Success," Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" sung by Robert De Niro,
and five versions of Miss Dinsmoor's theme song, "Besame Mucho,"
by everyone from Steve and Eydie to the Coasters.

The children Dinsmoor brings together in her run-down Florida
mansion grow up to be Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. On the
subject of Hawke, until recently he has seemed not much more
than a cute-faced pudgy adolescent in such films as "Reality
Bites" and "Before Sunrise." But he appears to have shot up
several inches, lost his baby fat and gone to the gym.

He now is a mature man, with the hard edges of a young Nick
Nolte and the sensitivity of James Dean. It's a good combination
and perfect for this role in which he plays a young painter who
must have confidence in his work but also a little self-doubt
about his ability to be man enough to win the woman he loves.

Paltrow as Estella brings the right amount of snobbishness and
aloofness to the role of a spoiled rich girl who can't seem to
find access to her own emotions. Best of all, she and Hawke
manage to convey a real sexual chemistry on screen.

From the beginning of the movie, when our hero helps a
convicted murderer (De Niro) escape the police, all the way to
the scene in which Finn, a complete unknown in the New York art
world, is mysteriously helped by unidentified sources to have a
successful one-man show in a Soho gallery, you feel that the
writer, director and actors can do no wrong.

The first moment of formulaic writing comes when Joe (Chris
Cooper), the lower-class Florida fisherman who raised Finn,
shows up at the opening and embarrasses Finn by committing a
faux pas. It's the kind of scene that's been in 112 movies a
year for the last 60 years and these filmmakers are too good
to stoop to such hack work.

Production designer Tony Burrough used a Sarasota mansion once
owned by circus impresario John Mable Ringling to create
Dinsmoor's gloriously crumbling estate, Paradise Lost. The
interiors are spectacularly gorgeous in their decrepitude.
Finn's drawings and paintings in the film are by the artist
Francesco Clemente and, stylistically, they are the only thing
about this movie I would have changed.

Movie Review "Great Expectations'

* CAST Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, Robert De Niro

* DIRECTOR Alfonso Cuaron

* WRITER Mitch Glazer, based on the Charles Dickens novel

* RATED R

* THEATERS Galaxy, Stonestown

* EVALUATION ***1/4