***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Alan Cumming, Edward Fox, Romola Garai, Anne Hathaway, Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Nicholas Rowe, Philip Davis, William Ash, Gerard Horan, David Bradley, and Kevin McKidd
Directed & written for the screen by Douglas McGrath, from the novel by Charles Dickens
2002
130 minutes PG
Dozen-or-So Best Films of 2002
That Nicholas Nickleby—what a guy. Friend to the downtrodden, scourge of those who would besmirch a good girl’s name, and a gentleman to the last, modest and true to his word. That his goodness is uncomplicated by things such as cunning, prudence, and forethought only makes us like him more. It’s one thing to do the right thing when you’ve mapped a way out of the trouble it’ll cause you. But it’s another thing entirely, and so much more noble, when your senses of justice and compassion blind you to the consequences of your actions.
Generally, of course, we prefer our heroes to be more complicated than that. We prefer them to give into temptation, to occasionally be self-serving, to fall in love with the wrong girl. This gives them more depth, realism, and makes them more like us. But sometimes we need movies like “Nicholas Nickleby,” in which the good guys are just so damn noble. There’s hardly a good deed in “Nicholas Nickleby” that is not in some way harmful to the gentle soul who performs it, but they hold their heads up high and don’t look back. And, by golly, that’s the way it should be.
Nicholas’s story takes him through all the locations favored (or loathed) by his creator Charles Dickens. We visit an inhuman orphanage run by cruel and self-righteous tyrants; we wander grey London streets where industry breathes, blasts, and stinks; we meet miserly industrialists with nothing but ice water and brandy in their veins; we calm ourselves in the pastoral countryside; and we follow our penniless but well-meaning heroes from danger to danger. Improbable (yet thematically-consistent) secrets and soap operas creep out of the past and, by the end, someone gets married. Someone always gets married.
19-year-old Nicholas’ (the very handsome Charlie Hunnam) quest is to hold his family together after the death of his big-hearted but financially lackluster father. In this he is beset by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, particularly his greedy uncle Ralph (acting legend Christopher Plummer), who represents the most merciless aspects of business and social Darwinian. Nicholas is joined by a crippled orphan named Smike, whom he rescues from the orphanage (this is the 1880s; no one was handicapped, they were crippled). Played by Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliot,” their friendship is the crux of the film, and their willingness to stick together through thick and thin is one of its many strengths. If you want to know what they look like, go to the dictionary and look up “sweet-faced boys.”
Because this is Dickens, we get all sorts of great supporting characters, both weird and small. Hunnam’s performance is an exceptional one, in part because he is so convincingly good-hearted and boyishly vulnerable, but also because he knows when to get out of the way of the supporting cast, which is frequent. The movie is the work of screenwriter-director Douglas McGrath, who has in the past teamed up with Woody Allen, and whose “Emma” is perhaps the most accessible of all the teacup-and-drawing room movies. Part of his wizardry is to allow Nicholas’s trip to include plenty of tangents in order to properly exploit all these Dickensian weirdos. At two hours and ten minutes, “Nicholas Nickleby” is a touch longer than the average movie, and worth it. One of the advantages of movies of this length, with this many locations, and a lot occurring at each of them, is that we actually feel like we’ve been on a journey. Say what you will about “Gone With the Wind,” but you’re physically worn by the end.
McGrath allows his two leads—the boys—to become supporting characters in many of these episodes. A new star is allowed to shine every twenty minutes and dominate the movie, while the boys look on in wonder. The malnourished orphanage stars a one-eyed Jim Broadbent and Juliet Stevenson as diabolical, almost kinky wardens. A lengthy side-story in which Nicholas and Smike join an acting troupe is handed over to Nathan Lane, Alan Cumming, and Barry Humphries, also known as Dame Edna Everage, playing one role in drag and one straight.
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