Good adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel.The story of a young man, Nicholas Nickleby (played by Charlie Hunnam). His father dies, leaving him, his mother and sister to fend for themselves. They seek assistance from his father's brother, Ralph (played by Christopher Plummer), who helps them. However...A great tale of survival and resourcefulness and good vs evil. Also, how when good but weak people band together they can conquer any evil.Solid direction. Not overly ambitious, but works well. Does drift in parts though.Good performances from the main cast, generally - Charlie Hunnam, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Romola Garai, Tom Courtenay, Anne Hathaway. Edward Fox is his usual irritating self, though in this case it is appropriate for the vile character he plays.

Douglas McGrath made the fourth adaptation of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby by writing the screenplay and directed this film that tells the story of how a teenager manages to become the head of the family when his father died.Charlie Hunnam plays the title role together with a cast of talented actors and actresses like Nathan Lane,Christopher Plummer and Anne Hathaway.After the unexpected death of his father,Nicholas watched over his mother and his sister Kate.Big challenges came when they realized that the father lost the family fortune due to bad investments.This makes Nicholas to seek help of his Uncle Ralph for help.He also becomes a teacher in a school of unfortunate boys that is run by Wackford Squeers and his wife.Due to all three - his uncle and the Squeers couple - being cruel and did not treat him well,he decided to run away and meets the eccentric Vincent Crummles and his fortune changes for the better.This is an absolutely well-acted,well-directed and an entertaining adaptation a Dickens serial.Aside from that,it was has a great theme about the triumph of good over evil.Despite the fact that it has a fast pace as the event happen very quickly due to its lengthy source,it was definitely a worthy adaptation of Dickens' work as it was able to tell the complete story within the time allotted for the film.

I saw the trailer for this film, based on a story by Charles Dickens, at the cinema, and with many great names in the cast I was quite keen to see it. Basically the Nickleby family enjoy a comfortable life, until the death of the father (Andrew Havill), leaving them penniless and forcing the children to travel to London to get help from uncle Ralph (Christopher Plummer). He is only interested in separating the family, and with an immediate dislike for his nephew Nicholas, he sends him to work for the sadistic northern England boys' school owner Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent). While Ralph is using Nicholas's grown up sister Kate (Romola Garai) to get investors on side, also grown up, Nicholas Nickleby (Charlie Hunnam) teaches the children, but leaves after a massive disagreement of opinion concerning discipline and punishment with Squeers, and he takes young crippled Smike (Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell) with him. Smike does not have any memory of his life before Dotheboys' Hall, but he proves a good friend and ally to Nicholas, as they travel back to London to bring the Nickleby family back together. On their way however they meet Vincent Crummles (Nathan Lane), his "wife Mrs. Crummles, or Mr. Leadville (Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage) and their acting troupe and join them performing for a while. I don't remember much else after this, only that with the help of Ralph's friendly secretary Newman Noggs (Tom Courtenay), Nicholas and Kate reunite and go against their uncle, ultimately rising over adversity. Also starring Edward Fox as Sir Mulberry Hawk, Juliet Stevenson as Mrs. Squeers, Timothy Spall as Charles Cheeryble, Alan Cumming as Mr. Folair, Anne Hathaway as Madeline Bray, Gerard Horan as Ned Cheeryble, Kevin McKidd as John Browdie, Nicholas Rowe as Lord Verisopht, Sophie Thompson as Miss Lacreevy, Stella Gonet as Mrs. Nickleby, Philip 'Phil' Davis as Brooker, Harry Potter's David Bradley as Nigel Bray and Heather Goldenhersh as Fanny Squeers. I will be honest and say it was the cast more than anything that interested me, also I did not pay the fullest attention I could of to the story, but for what I did, it is I suppose a pretty good period drama. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Worth watching!

This is not one of my favourite Dickens stories but any Dickens is worth pursuing. So I'm marking this against other Dickens productions too.The older actors are all outstanding. You mightn't think Barry Humphries could make a convincing "wife" in a "serious film" but he certainly does and I think Dickens, a fine actor himself, would have loved this performance.I was a little disappointed by some of the younger actors - they aren't quite up to the standard of their elders although they make a reasonable go of it. Perhaps the problem is partly that they had such a formidable cast of older actors to live up to. For Nicholas I would have preferred to see the acting depth of say Steven Mackintosh who gave such a brilliant performance as the hero John in Our Mutual Friend - which version is also one of my most favourite Dickens dramatisations, the other being the incomparable Tale of Two Cities with Dirk Bogarde.Nicholas is a feisty young man who stands up for himself and reasons out how to proceed and gains results. He isn't much a victim of events. The actor wasn't quite dynamic enough for the achievements the character manages. There wasn't enough on his love life either - that was settled just too briefly and easily. Oh, there you were, I knew, now let's get married. Not much more than that! Of all the actors, Christopher Plummer stood out for me as Ralph Nickelby. What a superlative actor he is! And also James Fox as the horrible predatory lecher - full of menace. I felt the girl who was to be forced to marry him escaped the net much too easily. We needed more tension, more fear, more horror but it seemed Nicholas walked in, told off Fox and Ralph and she said "I thought it was the best thing to do, to get my father's debt cancelled, but OK I won't worry about that now," and out she strolled with Nicholas, leaving the villains staring after them - and there was no comeback.I felt the denouement happened rather suddenly - I needed more time to see the evidence being gathered against Ralph and Plummer wasn't given quite enough time to deal with all the final revelations and most particularly the discovery that his son had lived but also had been badly treated for years and recently had died. We needed more about his background that is now revealed, and just what swindling he'd been up to - in more detail that is.These flaws are partly due to the usual length and complexity of Dickens' plots but there are shorter adaptations of Dickens that work well. All in all, there wasn't enough tension around the hero. Things went far too easily for Nicholas. I compare this quite light Dickens film to the grindingly grim and exciting tension of some notable Dickens' adaptations I've particularly liked - Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield, Tale of Two Cities,Little Dorritt 2 versions, Bleak House 2 versions. Nickleby misses somewhat - because of the scripting.That said, it's hard to fail with a Dickens adaptation and I commend this as well worth seeing once though I doubt twice.