I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter, Love n the Time of Cholera, Mona Lisa Smile, Enchanted April, etc) joins with creative screenwriter David Nicholls (When Did You Last See Your Father?, One Day, Starter for 10, Tess of the D'Urbervilles) and a cast and crew of enormous talent and delivers what in this viewer's opinion is the finest version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS on film. Few explorations of this complicated, dense novel by Charles Dickens manage to make every character wholly credible – no absolute villains or absolute heroes here, just a range of behavior throughout the spectrum that makes every character beautifully defined, making the intricate story wholly comprehensible.The story is soften told that the plot is well known – though never as fully realized as in this beautifully photographed (John Mathieson) and scored (Richard Hartley) version. Pip as a lad (Toby Irvine, Jeremy Irvine's younger brother) is terrified by an encounter with escaped convict Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes) and befriends him – a significant moment in the story. The young orphan Pip is kept by blacksmith Joe Gargery (Jason Flemyng) and his horrid wife (Sally Hawkins) until he is engaged by the strange Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter) in her strangely creepy house to play with her 'daughter' Estella (Helena Barlow). In rather rapid sequence the adult Pip (now Jeremy Irvine) inherits a fortune from an anonymous benefactor, his future seems promising. Estella (now Holliday Grainger) seems bent on a different life than one with the obviously infatuated Pip. Pip is off to London, becomes a wealthy gentleman, still pines for Estella, is supervised by Jaggers (Robbie Coltrane) until a series of secrets surface and the story proceeds to its complex conclusion. The vast cast is populated with some of England's finest actors and they all give sterling performances. The costumes and locations and settings are splendid. And for once the complex Dickens' story makes complete sense. Highly recommended.

I love the writings of Charles Dickens and this is one of my favourite stories. I expected a riveting performance but was just plain disappointed. There were lots of great talent, Helena Bonham Carter, David Wallliams, Scottish fellow and Ralph Fiennes among others; some lovely photography but for some reason this just didn't work. I had also watched the version that included David Suchet, Ray Winstone and Gillian Anderson, an unlikely cast and yet it really worked and I was in raptures. Maybe it was because this version was a condensed cinematic version and some of the original story had to be discarded but I had the sense that an intimidating cast list and terrific photography would carry the day but it really didn't. I like all of the actors in this but I really felt that they were utterly miscast. You know, Robbie Coltrane would have been a far better Bumblechook. Helena Bonham Carter just should not have been employed. Too bad- I so wanted this to be good.

. . . or maybe it's incest that wins out here. This version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS has so many head-spinning rewrites that it's hard for even someone who's read the book thrice for school and then seen all the previous movie adaptations to remember which parts of this version are by novelist Charles Dickens and which are inventions of screenwriter David Nicholls. As presented here, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is a French farce without the funny business. The same dozen people take turns being each other's parents, lovers, children, spouses, and murderers. Their constant role switching demands more head swiveling on the part of viewers than that required of tennis fans at a center court match. But the acting is wonderful here, the ironies are rich, the sets-costumes-score impeccable, and half the cast and crew of Harry Potter pop up by the close of this story. What's not to love?

Clocking in over 2 hours, the movie does feel like it's too long. And since it is a period piece, you get the old "repression" and not being able to get what you want thing. But the movie does have a spin of course and that spin is Ralph Fiennes character. Of course there have been quite a few versions of the book (that I haven't read I'll admit right here), I can't compare it to them (or the book obviously).Fiennes lends the movie some well needed gravitas and while it might have been a different movie with other actors in it (see "Did you know section" here on IMDb), it still is worth watching for anyone who likes his period pieces a lot. Drama and thrill combined with a little twist here and there always works. Jason Flemyng and other characters get less time than you wish they had and the movie ends like you'd expect it to ... though it is rather difficult to feel exactly what our protagonist is going through all the time, it still works most of the time.