Oliver Twist
(1997)
TV Movie
Country: USA
Synopsis
Filmed in Ireland. An elaborate made for TV production of the classic Charles Dickens tale set in 1837 England. After escaping from a sweat shop and going to London to find his relatives, Oliver, a young orphan boy, is befriended by a gang of child pickpocketers and their unscrupulous leader, Fagin.
Reviews and Other Resources
Cast
- Alex Trench
(Oliver Twist) - Elijah Wood
(The Artful Dodger) - Richard Dreyfuss
- David O'Hara
- Antoine Byrne
- Max Reynolds
(Oliver, 6 years old) - Eoin Chaney
- Simon Jewell
- Gavin Dowdall
- Stuart Dannell-Foran
- Mark Hannigan
BoyActors Reviews
12 member reviews/ratings for this Movie
Average Rating: (6.50 / 10)View All Member Reviews/Ratings & Stats
Most recent review listed first
Well, this is a 'Disneyfied' version of Oliver Twist. Fluffiness abounds. There is nothing here that is authentically Dickensian. The attitudes of the characters are very much those of the 1990s, and the London of Dickens with its rich characters has been replaced by a chocolate box image. It's as though the director believed that it is enough to put people in funny 19th century clothes and give them funny hair-dos and funny hats and bonnets, in order to make them authentically 19th century. All the characters in this version are shallow, one-dimensional, clearly sorted into 'good' and 'bad' - and utterly uninteresting. Nothing is subtle; everything is laid on thick, just in case you didn't 'get the message'. So, for example, when Bill Sikes appears for the first time we get some menacing music just so you know that he's The Villain. Elijah Wood's attempt at a sort of cockney accent (it sounds more like an Oz accent to me) is up there with Dick van Dyke as one of the very worst. And although in other films Elijah Wood has displayed a certain amount of talent, it has to be said that in this film he rattles off his lines with about as much nuance as a man reading through the telephone directory. Besides which he looks, frankly, weird, with his overlarge eyes and chipmunk cheeks. He's no London boy, and is hopelessly miscast as the Dodger. With all due respect to the other reviewers, as Aristotle said, one swallow does not make a summer - and one highly personable actor (i.e. Alex Trench) does not add up to even a passably decent movie.
My Movie Rating: 3 / 10Definatly not the best version of Oliver, but still watchable! Alex is SO gorgeous! Dreyfuss is one my fav. adult actors, but I think Ron Moody and Ben Kingsley did much better jobs as Fagan!
I've seen all of the Oliver movies, and this one ranks last on the list for me.
My Movie Rating: 5 / 10An American boy actor playing Oliver Twist? Whatever next! Well, that was news to me but then there weren't any extras on the DVD that might have bestowed that information.
Alex Trench was quite cute as Oliver and even the great Elijah Wood did passably well as the Artful Dodger trying on the Cockney accent and all. Not the best version I agree.
My Movie Rating: 6 / 10Page Last Modified: 31st August 2017
Page Added: 7th April 2004
Page Views: 10966
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