Oliver Twist Review (Oliver Twist (DVD))

Member Name: evesapples131

Product:	Oliver Twist (DVD)
Date:	15/09/07 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not many

Disadvantages: See review

Oliver Twist is about a 9 year old orphan boy living in the 1880s and who lives in a work house. One day Oliver loses a short straw game with his friends which means he has to go and ask the big mean govner Mr Bumble for more food. But of course Mr Bumble is outraged at Olivers greed and the poor little thing gets sold to an undertaker. At the undertakers they are just as horrible to Oliver and he is bullied by the teenage son, so Oliver runs away.

He finds himself in London were a boy named the Artful Dodger finds him and takes him to Fagin, a greedy old man who has lots of small boys living with him to go thieving for him. He takes Oliver in, and Oliver rather innocent to the fact that they are in fact thieves goes out with the boys one day and he gets arrested.

Oliver is taken in by Mr Brownlow, who is very kind hearted and can give Oliver a great life. Bill Sykes ( a violent friend of Fagin) and Fagin want to get Oliver back sharpish because they are worried that he might give the game away.

I won't tell you the rest of the plot outline because I don't want to ruin it.

I wasn't a fan of this movie because it lacked in spirit, it seemed to me that none of the character seemed connected, they were just individual characters alongside each other. It didn't work for me.

Nancy was a let down, the actress who played her didn't seem very old she looks around 18, which isn't what I wanted from Nancy, and she didn't seem very maternal towards Oliver. More traditionally Nancy should be around 30, old enough atleast to be his mother, and she should be more protective towards Oliver, in this flick she just wasn't like that.

I know the typical character of Oliver is a little bit quiet but in this movie he was practically without script. This movie claims that it's more traditional to the book, well in the book Oliver is 9, the young actor who plays Oliver (Barney Clark) in this was 12 at the time. Oliver should be a small tiny boy, that looks malnourished as he would be. But Barney Clark is a strong healthy 12 year old who is robust and rosy cheeked, a real letdown.

The sets look realistic, smoky chimneys, horse and carriages sort of thing. And the costumes are fantastic, but during the London shots, it's almost as if it's been filmed with a greyish cap over the camera, maybe to make it look more cold and miserable?

All in all this movie is a let down. Seeing as there isn't any warmth, energy or spirit to the characters it was so hard to have any feeling for any of them, I didn't really care about what happened to them. Which really isn't a great way to be when watching this film.

If you want to watch Oliver then choose another version, the 1999 mini series was superb, if you want to have the real feel of the story choose that. Or if you are planning to watch with kids then go for the 1968 musical version!


You can buy this version for around 2.50. So not too pricey if you want to see for yourself!

Summary: Oliver Twist review.