Nicholas Nickleby: Review By carl

"You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose you relatives."

A saying that many are no doubt familiar with, yet in my experience is a saying that is largely misunderstood. Most people who I know that use the expression, believe that it's saying you can't choose your family, but to view it that way is to view your relatives as family and everyone else as merely friends. The movie Nicholas Nickleby defies that way of thinking by pointing out that who a persons family is, is nothing to do with blood and all to do with feelings.

At the start of the film we are introduced to the characters in their younger days. Part of a perfect little family with loving parents and happy children. However after the brief prelude we are brought to the present, the present meaning the time the story takes place, and that happy family unit get's torn apart. The boy, Nicholas, from who's eyes the story is told, is now 20 years old but is too inexperienced in the ways of the world to really succeed as the family head. Help comes in the form of their uncle who's age and experience has given him contacts, contacts who are able to provide Nicholas with a well paid job and others who are able to look after his mother and sister until his return. Sadly while they do accept this kindness believing it to be the result of their blood ties, they soon discover that their uncle is a wolf in sheeps clothing. This is something that's given more atmosphere thanks to the performance by Christopher Plummer who manages to stay down to earth and provide quite a bit of nuance for a 2 dimensional Scrooge like character. The job Nicholas has accepted was given him to keep him away so that his uncle could enjoy the money which he should have inherited, and instead of looking after the mother and sister, he's trying to marry the sister off to a perverted old man who can invest in him and grant him even more wealth.

At the school he's now working at Nicholas is horrified to discover the headmaster Mr. Wackford Squeers, a wonderfully over the top sneering performance by Jim Broadbent, is a brutal, unforgiving man who beats children over petty matters. He feeds them on a spoonful of treacle brimstone and a sip of watered down milk, with the encouraging words "Subdue your appetites and you've conquered nature". One of the students, named Smike, get's particularly bad treatment since his parents stopped sending money. A strong bond develops between the 2 of them as Nicholas becomes the only person to ever have treated Smike right. Unfortunately once the friendship begins and Smike begins to feel happiness for the first time in his life, then the Squeers suddenly start intensifying their treatment of him. It get's so bad that he eventually tries running away, but when he's captured and beaten by the Squeers Nicholas turns the cane on them and leaves with Smike. Then they begin their journey that introduces them to a variety of colorful characters.

The magic of this journey is largely down to the way the supporting actors portray these larger than life characters, however it's in the more down to earth characters that the film really resonates. This is best seen in 2 characters that I found particularly interesting. They're both characters who have never known happiness throughout their lives, and still seem unable to find it when they're with Nicholas. The first is Smike, who was brought up by neglectful parents until he was abandoned at the Squeers school. He finds his first real family with Nicholas and the rest of the Nickleby's, except the uncle of course, but his secret unreturned love for Nicholas's sister is a cause of constant misery for him. The performance by Billy Elliots Jamie Bell is both honest and touching, and because of this performance you quickly become desperate for the character to find happiness before he dies. The other character is the love interest that he meets towards the end. Her mother gave up the chance for a good marriage when she married the wrong man, and so ever since she was born she has lacked true happiness. Every nice thing that's ever happened to her has been a trick by someone interested in doing bad. Now she's trapped looking after her father, who will trust no one and is willing to marry her off to the dirty old man we met earlier for the sake of clearing his debts. She's unwilling to trust Nicholas because of her past hurts, and goes with her fathers wishes simply for the belief in blood ties. Once again it's a case of the actress bringing the character to life. The performance by Anne Hathaway is full of raw emotion, believable misery that deservedly elicits the sympathy of the audience.

If I had to pick some problems with the film they would just be a few small things. The performance by Charlie Hunnam in the lead role of Nicholas is a little short of excellence. The character carries a lot of emotional baggage yet his performance lacks the emotional intensity of some of the other cast. He's far from bad, but he just feels a little bland in comparison. The other point is that sometimes the film can feel a little rushed. The film on occasion can feel like a series of mini adventures, with the overall themes a little repressed. However this was obviously going to happen with an adaption like this. The film is a little over 2 hours, whereas the critically acclaimed royal Shakespeare play released in 1980 had a running time of over 9 hours. It is literally impossible to get everything from a Dickens novel onto the screen with a reasonable running time, and so losing things is forgivable. Even with it's small faults though Nicholas Nickleby remains one of the most emotional, genuinely funny and simply charming movies of the last year.