What to watch: New ‘Great Expectations’ lives up to its literary legend
An edgy “Great Expectations,” Zach Braff’s latest feature, a top-notch BritBox series and a sensational neo-noir from China stand out this week.
Here’s our roundup.
“Great Expectations”: In a rundown, dust-bunnied estate, a zonked-out Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) takes a long pull on a pipe packed with opium; later she coerces poor Pip, the older orphaned teen whom she’s in charge of, into ditching his virginity via a sex worker awaiting his arrival in an upstairs bedroom.
You might well ask what in the Charles Dickens is going on with FX’s racy, Gothic to the extreme adaptation of the classic novel nearly every high school kid got assigned (or saddled with)?
The answer: A hell of a lot.
And even though executive producer/writer Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders,” “Taboo”) ups the kink factor and adds references to colonialism and other hot-button matters to Dickens’ durable yarn about a lad (played well by Tom Sweet and Fionn Whitehead) and his treacherous journey to better his own station by becoming a “gentleman” in mid-1800s England, none of the sordid or new revisions feel forced or out of place. In fact, this twist-filled binger adds deeper context to Pip’s odyssey, even stating the unwritten scandalous things Dickens probably observed but couldn’t include in his serialized version of the novel. Unlike more primly told cinematic and TV versions (there have been too many to count), this grand production feels reflective of the not-so-merry-old England and the grim and grimy mean streets of London of that period. True to Dickens style, it socks it to the crass, callous class system and takes roundhouse slugs at scoundrel lawyers.
Dickens’ rich gallery of rogues, rascals and near innocents come ever so deliciously to vibrant life thanks to an impeccable cast. Whitehead and Colman are divine, but so are Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella, Miss Havisham’s other orphan of mysterious origins, and Ashley Thomas (aka the rapper Bashy), as the shrewd but ethically corrupt lawyer Jaggers, Pip’s tutor on how to get ahead through unscrupulous means. Thomas swoops in and steals the show and should be commanding serious Emmy talk already.
If there’s one bump in the road, it comes in the form of the cutesy and homey relationship between Pip and his youthful crush, the ever reliable Biddy (Laurie Ogden). It feels overly idealized and trite. Of course that might well be a fault of the book and winds up a minor disturbance since this is an overall satisfying rendition executive produced by Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy, and one that even doles out a few narrative tricks near the end.
Does it live up to the lofty expectations? In some aspects and on certain occasions, it even exceeds them. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; available March 26; may be unsuitable for viewers under the age of 18.
“A Good Person”: Writer/director/producer Zach Braff’s latest and best feature looks with painful honesty and occasional dark humor at grief, addiction and the power we get from reconciling with our actions and demons. Florence Pugh should be garnering instant Oscar chatter for her multi-hued portrait of New Jersey prescription pill addict Allison, the lone survivor of a car accident that claimed the lives of her future sister- and brother-in-law. She gets reinserted into the lives of her former fiance’s father (Morgan Freeman), a recovering alcoholic, and his feisty teenaged granddaughter (newcomer Celeste O’Connor). Braff’s greatest gift as a storyteller is to create flawed characters who are fumbling to do better. And as a director, he deserves praise for drawing out two of the finest performances from his leads. Pugh tackles one of her toughest roles yet (she even wrote and sings her own songs) and is in tune always with the material and her character. Freeman hasn’t been this nuanced in quite some time. It’s a tough indie drama but “A Good Person” doesn’t wallow in its own tragedy. It beautifully expresses the flaws in human nature and the tangled mess that results from life and death. Details: 3½ stars; opens March 24 in area theaters.
“The Confessions of Frannie Langton”: As anyone with a BritBox subscription knows well, there’s an abundance of worthwhile series demanding attention. Executive producer/ writer Sara Collins’ four-episode adaptation of her own 2020 heartbreaking novel fits in that category and hews to BritBox’s high period-piece standards. It tells a gripping tale of mystery and romance and serves a stinging commentary on the White patriarchal/colonial time in which it’s set — a time when being Black and gay got meant you were subjected to the whims and tyranny of others. In Collins’ award-winning tale, Jamaican-born Frannie (Karla-Simone Spence, in a commanding performance) is hired as a household maid to a scientist (Stephen Campbell Moore) and his entrancing, mercurial wife (Sophie Cookson). What led to that couple’s savage murder and what role did Frannie play in it? This edgy and sensual period piece slowly reveals what led to that pile of bloodied corpses. Details: 3 stars, now on BritBox.
“Boston Strangler”: The matchup of Keira Knightly and Carrie Coon (so memorable in the underseen movie “The Nest”) punches up this involving, period-rich but somewhat ordinary thriller that celebrates old-school journalism and how the duo figured out what happened in the slayings of 13 women during a ‘60s reign of terror. Writer/director Matt Ruskin hones in on the bull-dogged tenacity of the two Record-American female newspaper reporters — features writer Loretta McLaughlin (Knightley) and Jean Cole (Coon) — as they unearth the shocking truths and ask the hard questions that got buried beneath the crimes. Yes, Ruskin’s version messes with the facts, but there’s no denying that his portrait of determined women journalists triumphing in a male-dominated profession rings true. Details: 3 stars; available now on Hulu.
“Are You Lonesome Tonight?”: In both a promising and accomplished feature debut, Chinese writer/director Wen Shipei demonstrates he’s a visual and narrative storyteller ready for the big leagues. The neo-noir “Lonesome” — which uses that Elvis song quite well — opens with a “crime” that an air conditioning repairman (Eddie Peng) commits while driving late at night. He strikes and kills a man, an act that leads the guilt-plagued “killer” to insinuate himself into the life of the dead man’s unsuspecting widow (Sylvia Chang) without revealing, of course, who he is. But what went down that night? Do some shady dealings in the past figure into the actual crime? All the questions get satisfyingly resolved in what turns into one of the most invigorating debuts you’ll likely to see this year. Details: 3½ stars; available on Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and other platforms.
“The Tutor”: Woefully underused actor Garrett Hedlund (“Mudbound”) makes a good match and is certainly game to take on the role of a hotshot tutor who takes on a new high-paying gig helping a brainiac of a dad with gobs of East Coast money, a job that comes with puppet strings attached. But the very good actor gets dealt a bad hand with a silly screenplay that’s too tricked out with a sleight-of-hand move that it all but folds on itself in the end. The film and Hedlund start out strong, but then both unravel just as the lead character does when young Jackson (Noah Schnapp) proves to be well-schooled on secrets from the past. Give Hedlund a better movie already. Details: 2 stars; in select theaters March 24.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.