Great Expectations

Columbia TriStar Egmont Film Distributors | Release Date: January 30, 1998

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

55	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Barbara Shulgasser

Handsome, well-acted, well-written and beautifully directed movie. Read full review

Charles Taylor

Great Expectations is a triumph because Cuarón's vision prevailed. He seems to be one of those artists capable of reminding us how we first experienced movies, as an overpowering enchantment. Read full review

David Edelstein

Fluid and lyrical and thoroughly transporting. Read full review

Russell Smith

Though Cuaron slips a time or two during his stylistic highwire act, his refreshingly original movie, aided by Hawke's career-best acting in the lead role, is a joy to watch. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Begins as a great movie (I was spellbound by the first 30 minutes) but ends as only a good one, and I think that's because the screenplay, by Mitch Glazer, too closely follows the romantic line. Read full review

Rick Groen

You may well watch this film and not buy into a single frame. Me, I couldn't help myself. Read full review

James Berardinelli

May not be an absolute triumph, but it's significantly better than just a good effort. Read full review

Stanley Kauffmann

Cuadron, at the helm, wanted to pitch his film in a terrain accessible to modern sensibility yet different from what that sensibility is generally fed. And he might have succeeded, except for his casting. [2 March 1998, p. 26]

David Ansen

Great Expectations has great style; that's not everything we want from the movies, but sometimes it's almost enough. [2 February 1998, p. 61]

TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh

No doubt about it: Unlike David Lean's much-loved classic, Cuaron's film is loosely based on Dickens. And that's just fine. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Largely because Mr. Cuaron is such a voluptuous visual stylist, this Great Expectations is capable of wonder even when its wilder ideas misfire. Read full review

Daphne Merkin

This update has to be one of the most ludicrously dumbed-down versions of a classic to date. But it does have a hip, hybrid soundtrack, and, as directed by Alfonso Cuarón ("A Little Princess"), it's so visually stunning that it's almost gripping in its incoherence. Read full review

Desson Thomson

There's nothing wrong, nor particularly right about the experience. It just sits there, like a Nike ad. Read full review

David Sterritt

The stars are appealing and the filmmaking is imaginative at times, but the picture never builds much dramatic momentum.

Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer

Cuaron is a special talent, and, as botched as Great Expectations often is, it's the kind of failure that deserves an audience--if only to experience Cuaron's way of seeing, which is at its best in the early parts of this film. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Beautifully made production lacks the emotional depth and dramatic tension needed to command audience attention beyond the level of a talented curiosity. Read full review

Jami Bernard

Lean's wonderful 1946 movie are taken down a peg with a tawdry update of Great Expectations set in modern-day Florida and New York. [30 January 1998, p. 44]