There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Two things I never miss are Dickens adaptations and Tom Courteney movies. I've been a fan of Dickens since my sixth grade reading of OLIVER TWIST and I love a good Dickens adaptation as much as a good Dickens book. The longer, the better. And I've tried to catch everything Mister Courtenay has done since his sixties appearances in "Billy Liar" and "Dr. Zhivago" and "Otley" right up to recent readings of his autobiography on BBC radio to an awful radio play he did about a bus driver. And while Mister Courtenay is one of those actors who seem born to play Dickens (his malignant Quilp was the highlight of "The Old Curiosity Shop") he really is better made for Dickens' nice, decrepit characters like Newman Noggs in 2002's "Nicholas Nickleby." But Courtenay simply doesn't have the authority to play William Dorrit, little Dorrit's father.In 1987's "Little Dorrit" Alec Guinness (another perfect Dickens actor from his youthful turn as Herbert Pocket in "Great Expectations") was cast as William. The same quiet authority that made Guinness shine as the sage in "Star Wars" gave him the gravitas he needed as the fallen man who maintains his dignity in debtors' prison (one of Dickens' favorite settings) so that he could be called "the father of the Marshalsea." Had he been twenty years younger, Courtenay might have played Arthur Clennam (an almost invisible Mathew Macfayden; the role was much better done by Derek Jacobi in the 1987 version, where Jacobi was able to play the weak-willed son without getting lost altogether).As far as the rest of the flick, it evokes the the period much better than the 1987 version, which was obviously stage-set and done, despite the talent involved, on a shoestring. Though today's more weird focus on the dirt of Dickens' day rather than the shiny bits is a bit off-putting.The best thing about the movie, besides an otherwise strong cast (Alun Armstrong as Flintwinch, James Fleet as Frederick, Ron Cook as Chivery, etc.) is the introduction of Little Dorrit herself (Clair Foy), done in half-face. It's a beautiful image of little Dorrit, who even in Dickens is somewhat of a mystery character (though she is much more explicable here than in 1987, probably because Foy is a better actress).As for William, a stronger actor than Courtenay (a Burton or a Wolfit) would have come off as a phony while an actor tending toward the comedy in Dickens (a Broadbent, say) might have missed the gravitas.Courtenay is an excellent actor who deserves to be plugged in to every major Dickens adaptation going, but he comes off here as one thing William Dorrit was without showing it--desperate; and one thing William certainly was not--whiny.

This is yet another outstanding Dickens-adaptation by the BBC. It makes you wonder how they do it: making everything fall so exactly in its place! The casting is perfect, settings and costumes are flawless, the direction is impressive and the editing gives it all a wonderful pace, helped by cutting it into short pieces of half an hour, so that you are kept on your toes all of the time, simply craving for the next episode.To be honest, Little Dorrit is not my favorite Dickens. I remember when reading it, it impressed me as over-long, over-crowded with characters and with story-lines, and – I'm sorry to say – as a bit tedious in the last couple of hundred pages, especially after the family Dorrit came into their unexpected financial fortune and starts traveling. So the directors (apparently there were three of them) and the writers deserve the highest praise, to have turned the somewhat tough basic material into this wonderful, exciting and involving story of love, greed, social differences, mystery and (thank heaven) lots of vintage Dickensian comedy.The basic premise of a life almost entirely spent in a debtors prison (the notorious Marshalsea), without any hope of ever getting out, and where even your children are born and bred, is heartbreaking in itself. The rest of the story with all the turns and twists that Dickens composed is actually less important, it is at many points too complicated and unrealistic. Even in the end, when all the mysteries are unfolded and out in the open, you keep wondering if you have understood everything correctly. But don't bother too much about logic, just let yourself be immersed and enjoy the ride.It's hard to give credits to singular actors, they are all so wonderful. Of course Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen should be mentioned as the two leading characters Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam. Claire Foy succeeds in making Amy more than just a spotless and angelic Dickens-heroine, she's a real person of flesh and blood who can at times be hurt and angry, but who stands firm in her believes and especially in her loyalty to her overbearing father. Foy gets more beautiful in every episode and in the last happy shots she's virtually radiant. Macfadyen is as Arthur convincingly her match in every aspect, he plays this extremely sympathetic, modest and loyal man to perfection, and with a wonderful sense of humor. He's also very handsome in a puppy-like way and it isn't hard to see why Amy is totally in love with him from the moment she first meets him. Of course Tom Courtenay has to be mentioned. His portrayal of the complicated personality that father Dorrit is, cannot be surpassed. The arrogance and the insecurity, the ungratefulness towards his daughter and yet his deep love for her, his carefully groomed image of "the father of the Marshalsea" and yet his fear for the real outside world, it is all there, not with grand gestures but with the subtlety that only the most gifted actors have. When he finally feels himself slipping away into mental confusion he just breaks your heart.I need to mention two more actors. I was on the edge of my chair every time Ruth Jones as Flora Finching came into view, she's absolutely hilarious and she never failed to make me laugh out loud, clinching and flirting around her old love Arthur and calling him "Arthur, Doyce and Clennam" all the time (it doesn't sound like anything funny when you write it down, but you should see it!). Ruth Jones was a great surprise to me and I don't know how her career develops but she definitely should have her own television show or something like that.The last actor that I want to point out is Russell Tovey. He plays the awkward and clumsy John Chivery, literally hopelessly in love with Amy. His character is clearly put into the story as a comic relief (the counterpart of Flora Finching who in vain tries to win back Arthur), and his unstoppable sobbing and desperation when his love is rejected are comical indeed. But in several scenes Tovey succeeds in lifting up his character to an almost grandiose level. His reaction when Amy – ever so gently – turn his proposal down already is heartbreaking. But his last big scene, when he tells Arthur – his supposed rival - how Amy actually loves Arthur and not himself, is unforgettable, it moved me to the core and I'm again in tears just thinking about it. Tovey is an extremely gifted talent and I just hope he will get many chances to prove it again.In short: a great series, a treat to watch and a heartfelt 10 out of 10!!!

Having never read "Little Dorrit", my review comes from the viewpoint of one unfamiliar with the source material. So, I'm not sure that my criticism is about this adaptation, or about the actual book.This is a LONG series and seems to wander pointlessly in many directions. I found myself wishing it would hurry up at points. I found hardly any of the characters to be endearing or enlightening. Too many of the characters are over-the-top caricatures of people and as such, I didn't find them believable or real. It felt too much like watching a 19th century soap opera.I really had a hard time with the Rigo character, or at least the portrayal of him. Every time he opened his mouth I thought I was watching a Pepé Le Pew cartoon.Although I felt it plodding onward, I stuck with it because I wanted to like it and was hoping there would at least be a good payoff in the end. My hope on this score was in vain. Without detailing all the flaws, suffice it to say that the final episode was a big disappointment, very melodramatic, and just plain silly, on top of being hard to follow on one viewing only.I give it a 5 for good production values and for the level of entertainment it offers.

... hardly "Little" when you see it spread over 12 half-hour and two hour-long bookend episodes, BBC's new production repeats the successful episodic template of the previous "Bleak House", with adaptor-extraordinaire Andrew Davies' latest dramatisation of classic Dickens again, proving, on the whole to be a successful and highly entertaining epic. The novel (no pun intended) idea of breaking down the book to bite-size half-hour chunks to echo the monthly magazine serialisation in Dickens' own time, certainly kept me looking forward with anticipation to the next one, even if it does cater to the half-hour-soap mentality and attention-span of much of today's target audience. The settings were superb, with every background filled in and peopled appropriately, from the squalor of The Marshalsea Prison to the grandeur of the stately homes of London and Venice as The Dorrits make their parabolic journey on the path of moral regeneration. The direction was well-paced and occasionally imaginative while the acting, with a few exceptions was excellent, particularly in the crucial main roles where Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen in arguably the leads convey without too much sentimentality (Dickens' goodly characters frequently teeter on the edge of over-sentimental caricature) their traits of honesty, loyalty, self-sacrifice and humility. The story has elements of Trollope's "The Way We Live Now" (another recent BBC/Davies triumphant adaptation) in its exposure of the unprincipled fat-cats at the centre of high finance, with of course echoes of today's post-credit-crunch collapsing banks in the depiction of Mr Merdle as the epicentre of the bubble that has to burst sometime. Plus ca change... Everyone will have their own favourites amongst the rest of the cast. I was particularly impressed by Eddie Marsan as the tough rent-collector with a heart, the snorting Pankes, Russell Tovey as the lovelorn lock-keeper's son John Chivery, Ruth Jones as Clennam's blowsy, bloated childhood sweetheart, Flora Flinching (her transformation from the slim teenager of his memory to today's fat frump, was deftly rendered) and Flora Robson lookalike Judy Parfitt as Arthur's cold, immovable (in every sense of the word) "mother". The biggest star on board, arguably, is Tom Courteney who skilfully makes sympathetic the basically aloof, pompous, self-deluding Mr Dorrit, particularly his descent into madness and sudden death. On the debit side, I found Freema Agyeman miscast and tending to overact in the admittedly difficult part of Tattycoram and if I was being picky just a little too much of the archetypal Victorian melodramatic villain in the performances of John Alderton and Andy Serkis as the rogues of the piece, Casby and Rigaud/Blandois. Davies' screenplay as ever can't resist the odd allusion to today, but I always find such moments jarring and there are certainly some crudities here which I don't recall Dickens employing. Seems such a shame to go to all the trouble of period recreation to besmirch it with clever-clever in-jokes to a modern audience. That said however, I was thoroughly transported into the Dickens' world that I love and wait with anticipation, the next production. Davies should take on a real challenge in my opinion next time with "Edwin Drood" and fashion us a credible conclusion to Dickens' death-shortened final work.