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Oliver Twist (2005)
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It's perhaps not surprising that Roman Polanski would find himself drawn to the often-filmed story of Oliver Twist — the director's own traumatic childhood (he survived the horrors of the Krakow ghetto during the Second World War) has resonances with that of Charles Dickens and his orphan creation. But there's something just a little too reverent about this well-crafted take on the tale. Ronald Harwood's screenplay efficiently fillets the sprawling novel and moves us through the well-known story at a pleasing canter. Prague stands in admirably for the bustling, stinking, crime-ridden streets of 19th-century London and, in general, the performances are adequate. But, despite his affinity for the source material, Polanski never channels the rage at the social conditions of the poor that inspired Dickens. And Ben Kingsley's Fagin is an oddly anaemic creation — possibly in a bid to avoid the accusations of anti-Semitism that dogged the 1948 David Lean classic, against which this is merely watchable. AS
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Tell us what you think
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Running time
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124min
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Country of origin
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Cz Rep / UK / Fr / It
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Genre
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Period Social Drama
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Ronald Harwood, from the novel by Charles Dickens
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Theatrical distributor
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Pathé
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UK cinema certificate
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PG
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UK cinema release date
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October 2005
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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