Great Expectations, Seven magazine review Dir: Mike Newell; starring: Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane Estella, the icily flirtatious object of Pip's affections in Great Expectations, pertly explains her attraction for men thus: "Moths and all sorts of ugly creatures hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it? Directors, however, are inexorably drawn to the Dickens novel itself, and - such is its compelling, unmanageable oddity - they too often run the risk of getting singed. While David Lean's 1946 film is generally acknowledged as the classic, Alfonso Cuaron tackled a modern-day version in 1998, and now Mike Newell's adaptation follows on closely from a recent BBC series. The greater challenge for a film rather than a television adaptation is the awkward question of excision and compression: it must be like trying to cram a circus tent and all its performers into a briefcase. Newell's palette is grimy and dark, and (as so often with Dickens) childhood proves the most terrifying location of all. The film opens in a graveyard, where the escaped convict Magwitch (Ralph Fiennes) terrorises the young Pip Pirrip (Toby Irvine) into bringing him food and an iron file. The deal is forged in fear, but its fulfilment still sparks a sentiment in Magwitch's soul which is to steer Pip's future. A stellar British cast illumines proceedings, with Sally Hawkins and David Walliams giving enjoyably grotesque cameos as Pip's choleric older sister and self-serving Uncle Pumblechook respectively. Helena Bonham Carter, in a grey cloud of mouldering lace, plays Miss Havisham with a nicely-judged blend of manipulative insight and insanity. The screenplay by David Nicholls does a good job of keeping the story moving, but Jeremy Irvine as the adult Pip - never the easiest character to portray - doesn't convey the intense inner conflicts the role demands, and the change in his relationship with Magwitch from revulsion to affection needs more space. Still, the pain and power of class distinctions is strongly evoked and the masterly set, by turns bleak and lushly decadent, is soaked in atmosphere.