Great Expectations..re-told yet again ~

just home from the Friday matinée of Great Expectations...my blacken fingers came up with a few choice words, after scoffing the usual tuck;

There have been countless adaptations of Great Expectations. Now less than 12 months since the TV feature starring Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham, Helena Bonham Carter is taking on the role on the big screen..

ham as in spam dahling!

David Lean remains such a giant of British cinema that he completely overshadows this BBC Films’ adaptation of a Charles Dickens’ classic, commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the author’s birth.

Lean, who died in 1991 aged 83, had a cast including Alec Guinness (making his full debut as Herbert Pocket) and John Mills (Pip) for his post-war version of Great Expectations (1946), released a year after Brief Encounter.

As if that legacy wasn’t enough, the last film I’d seen before Mike Newell’s new adaptation was... Lawrence of Arabia.

What are the chances of such a double David Lean whammy hitting director Newell, who is most famous for the froth of Four Weddings And A Funeral?

And so, while Great Expectations is good, it’s not great.

Even though the cast includes Harry Potter stalwarts Ralph Fiennes (Magwitch), Helena Bonham Carter (Miss Havisham) and Robbie Coltrane (Mr Jaggers), I doubt it will excite audiences under 12 to go and read Dickens on the back of seeing this in a cinema.

The story of a boy given a life-transforming legacy is slow to get going compared with Lean’s dramatic opening.

Later, there’s plenty of verbal exposition to try to give it some gas, but even from this launch pad the finale lacks an emotional kick.

Naturally, the sets and costumes are good to look at, but even an Oscar-nominated cinematographer like John Mathieson (Gladiator) can’t match Freddie Young’s Lawrence of Arabia standard.

Bettered by Gillian Anderson’s TV version last year, Bonham Carter is recognisably bereft of the outlandish set designs of her Tim Burton movies and the spark of regular co-star Johnny Depp.

Jason Flemyng plays blacksmith Joe Gargery, with David Walliams far too ‘Little Britain’ as Uncle Pumblechuook.

Potential future great Jeremy Irvine is less engaging than he was in either War Horse or Now Is Good – making the romance with hard-hearted Estella (Holliday Grainger) never in danger of frying the screen.

1.5 out of 5

here's the 'daddy' of 'em all...enjoy playmates _