Review: Oliver Twist (1997)

What? We all know the story by now don’t we? Oh, alright I’ll tell you. The title 19^th century orphan (Alex Trench) has only a locket with a portrait of his dead mother to remember her by. Left on the doorstep of a workhouse run by the harsh Mrs. Corney (Maria Charles), who promptly takes the locket from Oliver’s possession. Oliver leaves the workhouse at age 12 (he’s kicked out for daring to ask for more food) when he manages to steal the locket back, along with some food for his travels. Off he goes out into the streets, where he eventually falls in with teenage thief nicknamed the Artful Dodger (Elijah Wood), who in turn introduces Oliver to his boss of-sorts, the unscrupulous, rather guarded Fagin (Richard Dreyfuss). They teach him the art of pickpocketing, but trouble arrives via the foul-tempered and ruthless Bill Sikes (David O’Hara), who isn’t above a bit of murder from time to time.

 

Unsurprising but effective enough 1997 Disney TV movie version of the oft-filmed Charles Dickens classic. Directed by Tony Bill (“Crazy People”, the underrated weepie “Untamed Heart”) and scripted by Monte Merrick (“Memphis Belle”, “Mr. Baseball”), it won’t make you forget the immortal 1948 David Lean version, but I did like some of the dark corners it explored. Although ostensibly a somewhat lighter, Disney-ish take, the film also focusses on these youngsters being forced to steal for Fagin and Bill Sikes. It’s the best thing about the film, with the highly underrated David O’Hara standing out in the cast as Bill precisely because he just plays it straight up mean, moody, and angry as fuck.

 

Almost everyone else plays it fairly broad to varying degrees of success, with co-producer Richard Dreyfuss particularly enjoying himself it seems, as the unscrupulous Fagin. Does he disappear into the role? No, nor does he erase the memory of Sir Alec Guinness, though you can certainly see the Guinness influence in his performance. He’s broad, but enjoyable, and I’m glad he didn’t bow down to political correctness, as he has the long nose here. The anti-Semitism claims over the character have always seemed a reach to me. Less effective is a corny Elijah Wood as the Artful Dodger, giving a dry run for his Frodo accent, and only getting half way there. He’s OK, just forced and not quite ready for the part, I think. Much better are Maria Charles (admittedly hammy as hell, but effective) as the cranky Mrs. Corney, Antoine Byrne as Nancy Sikes, and the positively lovely Olivia Caffrey as Rose.

 

The chief casting problem for me, and in fact the only thing truly wrong with the film is Alex Trench in the title role. He’s bland and seems to get swallowed up by everyone and everything else in the film. You won’t remember him at all, and that’s a pretty big problem, to be honest. It’s a pretty good-looking film for a TV movie, but without looking so good that everything looks too pretty to be believable.

 

Mostly a nice, modest retelling of a classic, but with some dark qualities here and there about child exploitation and juvenile delinquency. A more charismatic lead actor might’ve helped put this one over a bit better. David O’Hara, however, is a terrific Bill Sikes and the film is still respectable, if unspectacular.

 

Rating: B-