It is skillfully made and adeptly performed; even so it doesn't really add anything to the canon.

This Great Expectations is an absorbing addition to the roster of Dickens films that continues our 21st-century fascination with the worlds created by a 19th-century storyteller.

Director Mike Newell approaches the sprawling bildungsroman with a stiff formalism, sacrificing all cinematic excitement for the sake of exalting great performances.

It is an intelligent and moving version of the book, with a good deal to say in its own right.