Bleak House | Gillian Anderson, Alun Armstrong

Bleak House | Gillian Anderson, Alun Armstrong | Powerful story! And very well done.

DVDs:

Bleak House

	Bleak House Gillian Anderson, Alun Armstrong BBC Warner, 2006 average customer review:based on 124 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Andrew Davies isn't much of household name in the U.S., but he's the king of the BBC mini-series. His skillfully adapted scripts for Pride & Prejudice (the beloved Colin Firth version) and many, many more are peerless examples of classic novels done right--cunningly edited and shaped to let all the rich emotion and sharp intelligence spill over with zip and vigor. Bleak House is no exception; it's one of the best Dickens adaptations to date. The mini-series form allows Dickens' panoramic view, brimming with eccentric characters and complex turns of plot, to sprawl out without losing an iota of suspense or momentum. Two innocent young orphans (Patrick Kennedy and Carey Mulligan) are the potential heirs to a fortune, but their fates are snarled in a monumental legal battle known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. But the heart of the story is another orphan, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin), whose mysterious parentage proves to be intertwined with the fate of the Jarndyce wards and the aloof Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files). Dickens' story twines through an excoriating vision of the legal system to heartbreaking domestic drama to a murder investigation to near-Gothic horror, all broken into utterly delicious half-hour segments (after the hour-long opening episode). Martin is utterly beguiling, homely at one moment and luminous the next; Anderson's grippingly eerie and brittle performance will delight her fans. But to single out anyone seems absurd, because every character--from the vicious lawyer Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance, White Mischief) to the foppish parasite Skimpole (Nathaniel Parker, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) to the simpering clerk Guppy (Burn Gorman)--is intricately drawn, all hitting a mesmerizing balance between caricature and stark emotional honesty. Bleak House demonstrates that humor, pathos, and social criticism can all be contained in one wonderfully entertaining package. --Bret Fetzer

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Bleak House

This is an excellent series. I love Gillian Anderson since the X-Files and everytime I see her in a movie I buy it, I happened to rent this series through Net Flix and I liked it so much that I ordered it through Amazon for my collection.

Powerful story! And very well done.

After eating up this 7 hours + of Dicken's BLEAK HOUSE, I went immediately to Amazon and bought the DVD and the book. It's a great story and I want to read the novel and rewatch this wonderful BBC production. Highly recommended!

Bleak House -

A friend had watched Bleak House when presented on PBS and I tried to catch-it, but missed several episodes. She purchased the set and kept telling me that I really needed to watch it, but never had the time. We finally had a girls weekend and watched the complete set!! Phenomenal job to the cast! Very intreging, couldn't stop watching! To anyone who thinks its way too much time - couldn't have been better spent. I even got my 19 year old hooked.

Bleak House

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Great entertainment!

This was a very enjoyable mini-series. I loved this dark Dickens' story, the characters were varied and interesting. I thought it was well acted and very satisfiying. Gillian Anderson was remarkable in her portrayal of a sad and bored wife, even if some of her mannerisms were a bit phony. All of the female characters were well defined and very realistic For those of you who love all things British and BBC video, ie. you have all of the Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell adaptations, this should be the next one on your list.

The Matrix goes to lit class

The good news: first-rate casting and acting, breathtaking sets and costumes, capable screenplay adaptation. The bad: Dickens' potboiler is nearly spoiled by excesses of murky, claustrophobic tight shots, dizzying cuts, and an appalling soundtrack.

The first irritant came early: the schlocky ambient loop "music" of the titles. In short order, the perplexing cuts piled up, scored with rifle-shot noises resembling PowerPoint slide-transition effects on steroids.

Do we really need swelling, synthesized thumpa-thumpa to clue us that Lady Dedlock is feeling strong emotion? Isn't it enough that she blanches, then faints? Dickens does not describe outright his characters' interior states, nor, do I think, should his adaptors.

The irritating editing and the larded-on sound effects nearly eclipsed the serial's great strengths. But despite these objections, we were hooked by the suspense, the setting, and the acting. More restraint (lose the synthesizer!) would have served this effort far better than than do the styles chosen. We'll be looking around for other versions.

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