Oliver Twist (1999)
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 137
Fresh: 82 | Rotten: 55
Polanski's version of Dickens' classic won't have audiences asking for more because while polished and directed with skill, the movie's a very impersonal experience.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 21
Polanski's version of Dickens' classic won't have audiences asking for more because while polished and directed with skill, the movie's a very impersonal experience.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 22,824
My Rating
Movie Info
Director Roman Polanski gives one of Charles Dickens' best-loved stories a new and dynamic interpretation in this period drama. Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is a young orphan in Victorian England who has been sent to a dank workhouse run by the miserly Mr. Bumble (Jeremy Swift) when it is learned there is no one to care for him. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he is sent away to live with an undertaker, who treats him poorly. Preferring life on the streets to the treatment he's been
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Cast
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Ben Kingsley
Fagin -
Barney Clark
Oliver Twist -
Jamie Foreman
Bill Sykes -
Harry Eden
Artful Dodger -
Leanne Rowe
Nancy -
Edward Hardwicke
Mr. Brownlow -
Ian McNeice
Mr. Limbkins -
Mark Strong
Toby Crackit -
Jeremy Swift
Mr. Bumble -
Frances Cuka
Mrs. Bedwin -
Michael Heath
Mr. Sowerberry -
Gillian Hanna
Mrs. Sowerberry -
Alun Armstrong
Magistrate Fang -
Andrew dela Tour
Workhouse Master -
Peter Copley
Dining Hall Master -
Liz Smith
Old Woman -
Lewis Chase
Charley Bates -
Chris Overton
Noah Claypole
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All Critics (145) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (55) | DVD (12)
It's noble, high-minded and safe, and I can't help thinking that I would have preferred an audacious but honest failure.
Top CriticGreat expectations are unavoidable when Roman Polanski takes on a Charles Dickens classic. Alas, his version of Oliver Twist fails to live up to them.
A grounded and unusually matter-of-fact adaptation.
Poignant and primal, Roman Polanski's splendid adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic pricks the heart and the conscience.
In Oliver Twist, it's the viewer who is punished.
Oliver Twist is a lovely, tony picture, but it isn't exactly essential.
Oliver Twist is an affecting and refreshing adaptation of Dickens seminal work from a master director.
The horrors are comfily buttressed by storybook polish
Beautifully shot but very dark. Not for sensitive kids.
Polanski has crafted something that already feels like a classic film, beautiful to look at, combining accurate period detail with a certain gothic expressionism and brimming with earthy characters and high drama.
Here is surely Polanski, even more than Twist, face to face with the disappointing paternal figures of his helpless childhood who, for whatever reason, couldn't protect or save him.
The unspoken sense of youthful post-traumatic holocaust syndrome shock and awe in Polanski's Twist is as palpable as the murky stench and appalling human misery of Dickens' chaotic London streets.
Polanski's film is not a bad adaptation, and it may be a fine way to introduce children to the classic story. But it is not exactly a definitive version of that story.
Probably the thing that Polanski's Oliver Twist does best, is deliver the mood of the day
With intelligence and style (inspired by the art of Gustave Doré and Francisco Solé), Polanski makes a rewarding contribution to Dickens' legacy on screen.
One of those movies that's sort of a hard sell for contemporary audiences, so unremittingly grim is its vision of society.
The movie understands what Polanski himself knew upon surviving the Holocaust--you take your kindness where you can find it, weighing its price along the way.
The performances are wonderful—Kingsley, especially—and the sets, costumes, and camerawork evoke a colorful period in English history.
The film is a noble failure, but I can't imagine anyone coming to it for the first time wanting to take their eyes off it given the visual splendor of this disc.
It just might supplant David Lean's 1948 version as the one that students turn to for a 2-hour study guide.
A severely overlooked, exceedingly well-done version of an oft-told tale...One of the best films of 2005.
Audience Reviews for Oliver Twist
If you're a die-hard fan of the musical then you probably won't enjoy but if you're a film lover who can appreciate a legendary film-maker's audacious re-telling then sit back and enjoy.
Super Reviewer
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- Bill Sykes: Put on your own face or I'll alter it so you won't know it again.
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- Bill Sykes: I told you not to bring a soul here, and you brought the Devil.
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- Fagin: Do you know what I consider the greatest sin in the world, my dear? Ingratitude.
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- Fagin: Fine fellows. Fine fellows.
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- Mrs. Sowerberry: Give him the cold bits put by for the dog.
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- Mrs. Sowerberry: He's very small.
- Mr. Bumble: He'll grow,Mam.
- Mrs. Sowerberry: On our food and drink.
Discussion Forum
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It has to be said that the Actors had nothing on most of the originals and whilst Ben Kingsley truly made this part his own and did a great job, there truly is only one Fagin (Ron Moody). Jamie Foreman wasn't a match for the great Olly Reed and as for the Artful Dodger, Jack Wilder is a tough act to follow. Leanne Rowe however, I felt played a great Nancy and did impress me, possibly because it was played very differently to Shani Wallace and seemed well acted.
I'm sure this version is much more suited to the original Charles Dickens Classic and of course there were things in this updated version, such as filming etc, that gave this a much more intimidating London than it appeared in the Musical version.
Directed by Polanski, I'm not quite sure if this really had the Polanski stamp on it, I'm used to much more escalating horror/Thrillers from the Director.
Just one thing! There is no mention in this version of Oliver being related to Mr Brownlow, or was this something added to the Musical version?
All in all a good adaption of the tale, just not as memorable as the Musical version.