Great Expectations (1998 film)
| Great Expectations | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Alfonso Cuarón |
| Produced by |
Art Linson John Linson |
| Written by | Mitch Glazer |
| Based on |
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
Patrick Doyle Ron Wasserman |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Edited by | Steven Weisberg |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $55,494,066 |
Great Expectations is a 1998 contemporary film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft and Chris Cooper. It is known for having moved the setting of the original novel from 1812-1827 London to 1990s New York. (The book was first published in 1861.) The film is an abridged modernization of Dickens's novel, with the hero's name having also been changed from Pip to Finn, and the character Miss Havisham has been renamed Nora Dinsmoor. The film received mixed reviews.
Ten-year-old Finnegan "Finn" Bell is playing on a beach in the Gulf Coast when an escaped convict suddenly pops out of the water and overpowers him, making Finn promise to bring back food, medicine and bolt cutters to get the iron shackles off his leg. Finn complies, and the convict unexpectedly tries to make Finn take him by boat to Mexico. The police seize the small boat heading out to sea. The convict hides on a buoy, and Finn's boat is towed back to shore. The next day, Finn sees on the news that the convict, mobster Arthur Lustig, had escaped from death row, but was recaptured and would face execution soon.
Finn's uncle Joe Gargery is called to Paradiso Perduto ("lost paradise"), home of the richest woman in Florida, Mrs. Nora Dinsmoor. She is a local mystery, having shunned virtually all human contact since she was left at the altar several years before. She ostensibly asks him there to do a gardening job, but instead she slips him a large sum of money under the door, calling it "gas money". Meanwhile, Finn, who he brought along, meets Mrs. Dinsmoor's young niece Estella in the overgrown garden. Mrs. Dinsmoor sees them interacting and calls Maggie (Kim Dickens), Finn's sister, to ask her to let Finn be a playmate for Estella, even though Estella apparently dislikes him and refers to him as "the gardener".
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