Oliver Twist ( 2005)
Review by M.B. | Foreign Films Made in Czech
| The movie is 130 minute long, with respect to the famous musical version in 1968 "Oliver!" which was 153 minutes.
It is based on Charles Dickens’ well-known book of the same name, this movie tells a story of a young orphaned boy, Oliver Twist. From a hard life, constantly hungry for love and food within the workhouse where he lives to being sold to an undertaker and got mistreated there, Oliver Twist begins his journey to London, to find a better life. He is welcomed by a gang of young pickpockets, whose leader is the famous crook Fagin. Witnessing his new friends pick pocketed others; he is shocked and gets caught instead. Being clear of the wrong doing, he is cared for by the same gentleman who is pickpocketed in the first place, Mr Brownlow.
Fagin and his partner Bill Sikes catch up with Oliver Twist when he least expects them, for the little boy by then, think the old days with the pickpockets are completely over. Oliver Twist is forced to help the baddies burglarized Mr Browlow's house, but things don’t not happen as planned by Fagin. Oliver Twist gets injured in the process, but recovers later.
A good ending, resulted in a bright future ahead for young Oliver Twist, with all the bad guys got dealt with accordingly. The costumes and sceneries are beautiful, and music is good, but this movie can not be compared to the same level as the famous musical "Oliver!" of the 1968. The new Fagin of this movie almost looks as good as the Fagin in the old version (Ron Moody), but with respect to acting, Ron Moody did a much better job.
Perhaps the fact that Mark Lester, the kid who played Oliver Twist in the musical, was only about 9-10 years old when the movie was done, makes the difference to the success of the musical? He looks and acts in a innocent manner; represent very well a victim of the environment, society and mishaps of his time. The Oliver Twist kid in the new version (2005), Barney Clark, is a bit older and looks a bit more calculating, and thus, we can’t really feel for his situation.
There seemed to be a slightly different theme in this new version. The new Oliver Twist fights for what he believed in. and his situations also seems better and better with time. All in all, this new movie was good, but may not be able to stir the same emotions and feeling from the audience to the same extent as the 1968 musical version.
The film's director is the Polish Roman Polansky.
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Posters
"Oliver!" Musical
Film Trailer
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