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