Review By: Alysa Salzberg
(AlysaSalzberg@TheCinemaSource.com)

While it’s unfortunate that Douglas McGrath’s Nicholas Nickleby wasn’t a blockbuster when it was released in movie theatres last year, it may be that your living room is a better place to watch it, anyway. This warm, enthusiastic adaptation of the 1838 Charles Dickens novel strikes me as a bit like a mug of hot cocoa – best appreciated when you’re wearing your favorite flannel pajamas, curled up in your most comfortable chair.

The film tells the story, naturally, of Nicholas Nickleby (Charlie Hunnam), and his journey from innocent, happy boy, to wise, world-savvy man. When his beloved father dies, 19-year-old Nicholas and his mother and sister are thrown to the mercy of Nicholas’ uncle Ralph (played with icy elegance by Christopher Plummer) who, it turns out, is as stiff and compassionless as the stuffed birds that fill his house. From him Nicholas gets a job that will take him to Dotheby’s, a boarding school in the north of England.

There our hero is plunged into misery at witnessing the cruelty and ignorance of schoolmaster Wackford Squeers (Jim Broadbent, in a wonderful performance of one-eyed sadistic glee, mitigated by Dickensian humor) and his wife (Juliet Stevenson, equally wonderful, playing a cross between Lady Macbeth and an emaciated Mrs. Fezziwig gone horribly wrong). Besides the fact that the students are as poorly educated as they are poorly fed, what’s worse is the Squeers’ treatment of Smike (Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell, in another brilliant physical and emotional performance, albeit one of a very different kind), a crippled orphan who was left at the school long ago and is now doomed to slavery to earn his keep.

Soon a horrible event causes Nicholas to save himself and Smike from this hell on earth, and they set off, meeting, along the way, the Crummels, an acting troupe of warm-hearted, highly-dramatic individuals, including the delightful Nathan Lane as troupe leader Mr. Crummels; Alan Cumming as Mr. Folair, an actor forever thwarted in his attempt to perform the perfect Highland fling; and, in a strange but sublime casting choice, Dame Edna (a.k.a. Barry Humphries) as Crummels’ loving wife. It’s a pleasant interlude spent here in the theatre, but soon Nicholas and Smike have to hurry to London, where dire things are happening to Nicholas’ sister.

Back in London, it’s a struggle for the Nickleby’s, and for Smike: they must survive in the big city, while eluding the clutches of those crueler and more powerful than they. But throughout their struggles and successes, sorrows and romances, one thing remains constant: the love these people have for each other, a love that only grows as more friends come into their fold. From a typical family, the Nickleby’s grow to include numerous other dear friends, as though innocence has embraced the goodness found in the world. Nevertheless, death, danger, and a possibly unrequited love will enter the picture – will Nicholas and his family come through in ...