It's a weak-tea imitation at best.

It's not a perfect film but it's not often you get one that sings literature's praises so eloquently, and that makes up for a lot.

Mr. Pip doesn't start going seriously awry until its second half, when things get more eventful in ways that are compacted from the novel yet seem more disconnected.

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Lloyd Jones, Mr. Pip is a movie coming from a good place, destined to take you to a bad place.