A wonderful adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens, is a tale of a
young orphan boy in 19th century London who got involved with a gang of pickpockets.
Nine year old orphan Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is taken to a workhouse controlled by
an awful man Mr.Bumble (Jeremy Swift). Due to the intolerable situations Oliver runs away to the streets of
London. There he meets a boy named Artful Dodger (Harry Eden) who in turn introduces
Oliver to the leader of a pickpocket gang Fagin
(Ben Kingsley).
After being trained in stealing, Oliver is taken out on the streets where he watches
Artful Dodger and another boy. On his first outing, Oliver gets into trouble when his gang pals pick the
pocket of Mr.Brownlow (Edward Hardwicke). Everyone assumed that Oliver is the culprit and the angry magistrate was ready to send
him to jail. But the kindly Mr.Brownlow felt really sorry for Oliver and took him to his palacious home and gave Oliver a new life.
F
agin and
his gang buddies are afraid that Oliver will tell the authorities about
their activities which could put them in jail. Fagin convinces Nancy (Leanne
Rowe), one of his pals girlfriend, to kidnap Oliver and get him back into
their gang. Find out more about this classical story.
The Oscar winning director Roman Polanski, skillfully creates another
masterpiece. One more time he recreates the enduring classical tale with a top notch
cast. He puts a lot of light on some of the social abuses that still prevail in the modern
society. He beautifully presents good people like Mr.Brownlow and bad guys like
Fagin. He gets
very good performance out of his cast. The 19th century Victorian London is very
well presented with attractive production designs.
Oscar winner Ben Kingsley as Fagin steals the show with his excellent
performance. He very well portray the greed and cruelness of a bad guy and makes the character a sinister
and tragic figure. Barney Clark as Oliver Twist presents an admirable
performance. The rest of the roles are beautifully performed by a talented cast.
This classical tale had been told many times before but Polanski strictly follows the immortal
novel. Together with the screenwriter Ronald Harwood, Polanski makes a good movie out of this complex
novel. It will be a good
entertainer for the young and the old alike.
We rate this movie VERY GOOD
