Great Expectations 2011/2012: Battle of the Miss Havishams

Great Expectations 2011- 3 part miniseries with Gillian Anderson

Released Christmas 2011 in the UK, this gorgeously filmed television miniseries in 3 one hour long installments was quite well received by the British public for the most part. We in North America get to watch this one on PBS over 2 Sunday nights in April (April 1st and 8th).

Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham: Great Expectations 2011

The wondrous Gillian Anderson (whose Lady Deadlock from Bleak House 2005 stays with me yet) has been cast as the youngest looking Miss Havisham ever. If anyone can pull this off, I'm betting on her. However, one wonders with a Pip as beautiful looking as Douglas Booth, why doesn't she just tidy up the place, throw on a new frock and go after Pip herself? Sorry...Great Expectations, not Cougar Town!

The incredibly gorgeous Douglas Booth as adult Pip

What do you think of our young hero ladies? No wonder Douglas Booth is being heralded as a teen heart throb in the UK. Maybe he can get a whole new generation of females to read Dickens, which is never a bad thing!

Oscar Kennedy as young Pip in Great Expectations 2011

As seen in the photo above, the cinematography is breathtaking so I would watch it for this alone, but apparently David Suchet's Jaggers is pretty impressive too.

Estella and Pip dancing in Great Expectations 2012

This is something for us to look forward to when we are waiting for spring and a good way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.

Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham Great Expectations 2012

And if that wasn't exciting enough for Dickens's 200th Birthday, there is a theatrical release scheduled for sometime later in the year of yet another adaptation of Great Expectations. I'm holding my breath on this one, as it is a big story to squeeze into a 2 hour film. On the other hand, with Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwich, it has a certain appeal already. Add to that director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and various Harry Potters) and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as Pip and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) as Jaggers and you have my attention. Fingers crossed on this one friends!

War Horse- 2011

War Horse- Movie Poster

The Squire and I just went to see War Horse last night. Absolutely worth seeing, I would say this one is an instant classic. It would be good to take pre-teens and teenagers to, but the second half of the film is too intense for young ones.

It is essentially a war movie (an anti-war movie to be specific), but it has a wonderful story about the journey of the horse Joey from the gorgeous countryside of Dartmoor, Devon in the west country of England to the horrors of the trenches in France in WWI.

Jeremy Irvine as Albert Narracott in War Horse

Young Jeremy Irvine is absolutely transfixing as Albert Narracott, the boy who trains and loves the gorgeous thoroughbred his father buys at auction instead of a good working plough horse (Oops-seemed like a good idea at the time).

Peter Mullan and Emily Watson as Albert's parents in War Horse

Emily Watson (one of my fave actors) is wonderful as the pissed off mother Rose Narracott who rightly takes a strip off her alcoholic husband Ned (played brilliantly by Peter Mullan), but stands by him and loves him through everything.  Awww!

Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Kennedy and Tom Hiddleston in War Horse

Joey the horse is unfortunately not able to be kept at the farm after war is declared and so is sold to a Cavalry officer Captain Nicholls (played by the ever wonderful Tom Hiddleston). Pull out your tissues at this point in the film.

Grandfather and Emilie with Joey and friend in War Horse

Not only does Joey make an equine friend (Topthorne, the black horse) but the two horses go from the Germans, to a French girl and her grandfather, back to the Germans and then a very dramatic scene at the front where Joey ends up in no man's land, between the English and German trenches. The no man's land scene is the best scene in the entire film, and you can see the hand of both Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis (Four Weddings, Love Actually) in the wonderful writing.

Joey and Albert in the beautiful Devon countryside in War Horse

I was sobbing at parts of this film, more because I was thinking of my two great-uncles who died in the Great War (they never thought there would be another), one of whom was born in Devonshire. So  you may not find it as much of a weeper as I did, but still I would not have missed it for anything.

So I give this one two hooves up!