Nicholas Nickleby

Synopsis: When Nicholas Nickleby’s dad dies, the family fall on hard times, deciding to move to London hoping their wealthy Uncle Ralph (Christopher Plummer) can help them out. But he sends Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam) off to teach at a squalid boarding school and tries to use the pretty young sister as a bargaining chip/ plaything in financial deals with his rich mates. Meanwhile, Nicholas stands up to the cruel headmaster Mr Squeers (Jim Broadbent) by rescuing the mistreated young servant. They both escape and have a bit of an adventure joining a theatre troupe on their way back to London to save his sister’s reputation and thwart his uncle’s plans.

Good triumphs over evil, which is great, but does it have to be so unrelentingly banal? I couldn’t stand all the fake goodness in Nicholas Nickleby. The wicked characters are way more fun. And that is the key, I think, as to why this film fails. The squeaky clean good characters have no character; they are all interminably boring and earnest. Nicholas looks like some sort of blond Frankenstein with no personality and no depth. If this guy is the good guy, he should be no role model for anyone. Being kind and virtuous doesn’t mean being boring and having no sense of humor. Hunnam ensures the failure of the film by giving a wooden, simplistic and soulless performance.

Luckily, what this film does have is some other fantastic actors. Christopher Plummer is outstanding. Plummer’s complex layers of villainy blow Hunnam’s simplistic good boy performance away. He plays the corrupt and malicious Uncle Ralph to perfection, never once succumbing to the temptation to ham it up. In fact, he superbly underplays the part. Jim Broadbent and Juliet Stevenson are great, if a little one-dimensional, as Mr and Mrs Squeers, epitomising Dickensian cruelty and meanness by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the weak for their own greedy ends. For those that aren’t familiar with Dickens, it’s all rather like Margaret Thatcher’s England. Timothy Spall gives, as ever, a solid performance as a wealthy benefactor. Barry Humphries does his usual stuff a la Dame Edna, and does it entertainingly through the 19th Century looking glass.

The sets, locations and costumes all capably reflect the Dickensian feel, but the camerawork is as pedestrian and uninspiring as the whole film.

 

 

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