With one of the greatest casts ever assembled, obviously plenty of funding, completely wasted on a disastrous script and director who obviously is new to film. The decision to do it all in flashbacks was a mistake. Every costume looking as though it just came out of a shop window and lit like a stage musical. The hair and make-up are bang up-to-date: for about 1965. More wigs than you get in a drag show, with comic effect, while Ms Trotwood wears a cap that could be designed for Thunderbirds puppets. As for the set, someone seems to have started filming before the carpenters had finished painting and screwing things up.
The script tries to put the narrative into characters' mouths but the mish-mash of of Dickensian phrases and twentieth century usage sounds stilted. The characters behave in every 'played by numbers scene' as though they've just met for the first time. I gave it two stars as about half the cast were struggling dutifully to deliver this witless production.
The script tries to put the narrative into characters' mouths but the mish-mash of of Dickensian phrases and twentieth century usage sounds stilted. The characters behave in every 'played by numbers scene' as though they've just met for the first time. I gave it two stars as about half the cast were struggling dutifully to deliver this witless production.