Great Expectations Reviews
October 21, 2020
The British director, David Lean, is the real star of this offering. Formerly an imitator of stage techniques, he proves himself a real movie virtuoso.
September 10, 2018
Handsome and ghostly.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
February 16, 2016
Great Expectations is a unique and reassuring British film.
August 26, 2013
With characters so vividly drawn, their ambitions and disappointments are keenly felt
Full Review
| Original Score: 76/100
December 18, 2010
Dickens' suspenseful tale a great classic for 10+.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
March 26, 2009
Only rabid Dickensians will find fault with the present adaptation, and paradoxically only lovers of Dickens will derive maximum pleasure from the film.
January 9, 2009
When David Lean adapted one of the all-time great novels to the screen, he never forgot he was making a movie.
November 1, 2008
Lean fills Great Expectations with a wealth of visual detail and vivid characters and personalities... and he directs with a warmth and humor...
August 3, 2008
Original Score: 5/5
February 23, 2008
One of Lean's gems, this superb adapation of Dickens is still the vest version (for film or TV), boasting great acting from John Mills and Alec Guinness (who were regulars in helmer's work) and accomplished production values acknowledged with Oscars.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
November 6, 2007
If you want to see how Dickens anticipated the cinema, consider how little had to be done to bring the graveyard meeting between Pip and Magwitch to the screen.
November 6, 2007
An unmissable rerelease.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
November 6, 2007
The graveyard scene is still a shocker, the details are still astonishingly well assembled, and the performances are wonderful.
January 29, 2007
This is still the definitive version of Charles Dickens' amospheric and occasionally creepy classic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
June 24, 2006
The definitive adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic is this one from David Lean.
Original Score: 3.5/5
February 9, 2006
David Lean's black-and-white masterpiece may be a whirlwind tour of Dickens' novel, but what a well-performed, economic and atmospheric tour it is.
October 10, 2005
Original Score: 4/5
January 3, 2005
A masterful adaptation of a masterful novel.
Original Score: 5/5
February 19, 2004
Original Score: 3/5
October 3, 2003
Original Score: 5/5