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Just perfect...

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The production of this movie is simply disrespecting and blaspheming the novel. The series changed a lot of crucial moments and made the book seem like a cheap $3 publication. Outrageously rubbish.

Please don't watch this terribly miscast BBC version of the beloved tale. Just wait for the Ralph Fiennes version coming out soon. Or re watch the John Mills and Jean Simmons version which is near perfect.Lots has been said about Gillian Anderson being too young and pretty to be Ms Havisham but she is actually alright quite ghostly and spooky. The problem is Vanessa Kirby as Estella she is just way too plain - like some ugly step sister of Cinderella. Even Ms Havisham is prettier than Estella!. Terrible miscasting. You could throw a stone and find a prettier English girl on any street in London. Really spoils the series.Douglas Booth is too pretty and polished for Pip instead of being wide eyed and rough around the edges. He doesn't display enough emotion at the right parts. It's like the Beauty and the Beast with Estella the beast! Even the 2 kids as young Pip and Estella aren't cute.There is a lack of romantic sweep and drama in this version. Also there are some crucial things they didn't show eg Pip trying to save Ms Havisham. Watching this version will ruin your image of the story. Just skip it.

I can fault a film for leaving out bits of book due to time constraints but a TV should be able to flesh it out more having more time a leeway. SO when they leave out characters and scenes that are integral to the themes of a book it irks me.But my main issue with this production is that all the themes and symbolism in the book got tossed out in place of a LOVE STORY! The characters have been changed from their true natures to some clichéd Hollywood tripe.There worst is Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe.Miss Havisham is not nearly as crazy and bitter as she should be. She comes more as a fairy queen or some kind of ghost.There is NO maid at Miss Havisham's there is Estella because Estella is being trained to break men's hearts by Havisham! Not that you would know from this version. Miss Havisham is all wrong in her speech "Love her pip." WHAT?! She is bitter about love, she would NEVER say that. And she NEVER invites Pip back, Pip goes of his own accord to find Estella who has abroad to mainland Europe. Also she NEVER comes down to greet people they go UP to see her. There are no lighted windows in the house and Estella must lead all guests by candle light. And as I envisioned it, there are a lot more clocks.Also she is cold and rude and snobby and she NEVER runs after pip. She has been trained that way.Mrs. Gargery is not NEARLY as awful as she was in the book, which is particularly vexing for me as I had mother just like her. Mrs. Gargey says "I'm so proud of you pip!" HUH?! That is totally out of character. She takes the money Pip earned and goes out to celebrate, scolding Pip for not being in a good mood when he has just been indentured to Joe. She raised pip and Joe by hand and you hardly see that. It just looks like a standard household with the usual quarrels not what Dicken's showed us at all.Mr. Gargery was a kind-hearted simpleton who said next to nothing in the book but here he's all ready to do the right thing and take action. And his kinship with Pip is totally off because Mrs. Joe is not nasty enough so that bond between Pip and Joe gets tossed aside.Pip seems to old by the end of the first episode and he seem endowed with too must consciousness from the start, in that the convict doesn't ask him to get food, he brings it of his own choosing AND he doesn't bring the whole pie! Which, throws off the later incident when he is almost found out.And there is no Biddy which provides a contrast to Havisham's AND provides Pip with a very important lesson in that wealth and power and learnin' doesn't = happiness. For when Pip offers to raise Joe up from his station when Pip has become a gentlemen, she counters saying that maybe Joe is happy where he is.Pumblechook in the book came off as an asshole but not a scheming one who when Mrs. Joe falls ill he smirks and says some line about moving up and on without her.It is things like this that really bugged me. I didn't mind not having the Jolly Bargemen scenes if you had to cut something but to needlessly change the characters personalities was stupid because it alters Dicken's intentions and the lessons he was telling. I don't know WHY they did it but it was EPIC FAIL.And as a last complaint, I think the film (i.e. characters, sets etc) could've been much much filthier just as Dicken's describes it.If you've haven't read the book this version will be fine but nothing outstanding.If you haven't read the book DO SO NOW.If you have read the book, you can watch this if you want to yell at the screen the whole time. Or you can just avoid and keep your version of Miss Havisham safely in your head.

Another example of BBC scriptwriters attempting to 'improve' on classic works of fiction, hence the existence of previous Christmas failures like THE TURN OF THE SCREW and WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU. GREAT EXPECTATIONS follows in the footsteps of those unwise productions and turns out to be another utterly forgettable adaptation.This miniseries is laid out over three hour-long episodes and yet contains less depth and material from the book than the shorter David Lean version. Much of the comedy from the book (like the bit with Joe not knowing where to put his hat) is excised, leaving this a maudlin, pretentious experience. New, endless scenes of characters arguing or sitting around tables are not a substitute for genuine penmanship.Although the production looks good, with some excellent atmospheric shots of Romney Marsh at the opening, like THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL the whole of the action takes place in only a handful of locations, which soon becomes repetitive. Where's the hustle and bustle of Victorian London, the feeling of another era brought to life? Not here, certainly.Of the cast, there's little to write home about. Douglas Booth (PILLARS OF THE EARTH) is adequate as Pip and Ray Winstone makes an excellent Magwith and deserves more screen time. Gillian Anderson's Miss Havisham is horrible, and not in a good way. She seems to be channelling the White Witch, talks in a silly little girl-voice and is about twenty years too young for the part. It's a pantomime performance and the worst I've seen of this actress. Vanessa Kirby's Estella is certainly not the woman that "any man would want to marry" and David Suchet and Mark Addy are both wasted in nothing roles.A distinctly lacklustre Dickens that takes away the very life and voice of the author, leaving only bland characters going through the motions.