Great Expectations Reviews
David Lean’s handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel captures the warm humor and richness of character that so many filmmakers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England.
Full Review | Oct 6, 2023
Definitive
Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 11, 2023
The film is almost never less than graceful, tasteful, and intelligent, and some of it is better than that.
Full Review | Jun 28, 2021
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.
Full Review | Oct 21, 2020
Handsome and ghostly.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 10, 2018
Great Expectations is a unique and reassuring British film.
Full Review | Feb 16, 2016
With characters so vividly drawn, their ambitions and disappointments are keenly felt
Full Review | Original Score: 76/100 | Aug 26, 2013
Dickens' suspenseful tale a great classic for 10+.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 18, 2010
Only rabid Dickensians will find fault with the present adaptation, and paradoxically only lovers of Dickens will derive maximum pleasure from the film.
Full Review | Mar 26, 2009
When David Lean adapted one of the all-time great novels to the screen, he never forgot he was making a movie.
Full Review | Jan 9, 2009
Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 3, 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 | Feb 23, 2008
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.
Full Review | Nov 6, 2007
An unmissable rerelease.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2007
The graveyard scene is still a shocker, the details are still astonishingly well assembled, and the performances are wonderful.
Full Review | Nov 6, 2007
This is still the definitive version of Charles Dickens' amospheric and occasionally creepy classic.
Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 29, 2007
The definitive adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic is this one from David Lean.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 24, 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.
Full Review | Feb 9, 2006
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 10, 2005
A masterful adaptation of a masterful novel.
Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 3, 2005