a romantic's opinion.

Great Expectations was a beautiful movie. I liked it more than the book. It reminded me of my own first kisses, and how much surprise was there, and how much feeling. Unlike most movies, it really captured the emotions involved and the beauty of love. Finn doesn’t get Estella for a long time, but it doesn’t seem that long, and it also just appears to be his only option—there is no one but her, Estella, whom he loves. A love since his was ten years old. I wouldn’t call it true love, but it certainly had a degree of endurance to it. Ever enduring, everything he did, he did it for her.

The modernization was done well, taking away a lot of Dicken’s dryness and made the story easier to follow, easier to identify with. It still left his story intact, and the theme and key elements were untouched. The settings fit the story wonderfully, and the actors did a great job of working with their characters. While not being Dicken’s historic classic, this film has potential to become a new classic.

The architecture and general feeling evoked by Paradiso Perduto (Paradise Lost…very implicit.), Estella’s aunt’s mansion, was also beautiful. The place seemed to be a relic of the past, beautiful and fragilely preserved, but weed ridden and slowly becoming decrepit, a mirror of its mistress. Secluded and magical, it seemed apart from the real world, almost a ruin of one woman’s heart.

All of the scenery was utterly beautiful and, in a way, symbolic. Nothing was busy or urban, even New York City seemed sensual and full of soft lust.

The fist kiss at the water fountain, and its repetition in New York, was a thing of beauty. Original and real, it had more depth than any other on-screen kiss I’ve seen before. Because it was so simple, and so unique, it seemed to be more realistic and touching than any other thing I’ve seen before.

Estella’s redemption, when at the end she was able to break away from her aunt’s teachings, also seemed real. She knew she was a product of her aunt; she knew she couldn’t change it until the end. I think, even then, she won’t give herself to Finn for a long time, if ever.