Bleak House (2005) Review

I should start this review off with a confession. Although I didn’t love every single thing about the 2005 Bleak House, and although it drove me to say more than once (though not often) that stinging indictment “that’s not how it was in the book,” I probably prefer it to the book on the whole. I wrote a post about my thoughts on the book quite some time ago, and my verdict was that it was rather a mixed bag for me. Some of the things I didn’t like about the book were, in my opinion, fixed in the mini-series. (Though of course some things I DID like about the book were CHANGED in the mini-series. Isn’t that always the way.)

(Be warned: there will be spoilers throughout.)

As usual I’ll start with the characters, but since there are so many I won’t go through every character in detail as I often do. Instead, I’ll split the major-ish characters into categories. The first category is those characters whose portrayal is absolutely excellent, and the two who go in this category are Gillian Anderson’s Lady Dedlock and Burn Gorman’s Mr. Guppy.

In my opinion it’s very hard to bring the Lady Dedlock of the book onto the screen, but I think this is as good as we could possibly get. Obviously Gillian Anderson is beautiful, as Lady Dedlock should be, and she lent just the right amount of gravitas, sophistication, and reserve to the role, while still being very vulnerable and letting the audience know what she was feeling when that was called for. I can’t imagine a better portrayal of Lady Dedlock.

And if you didn’t know any better, you would almost swear that Dickens was thinking of Burn Gorman when he created the character of Mr. Guppy, because he completely inhabited the role in a way which was lovely to behold. He looks exactly how you’d picture Mr. Guppy in the book, and his mannerisms, line delivery, &c. are absolutely perfect. (My mom has pointed out that Mr. Guppy in the mini-series actually has more personality than the character in the book…they took what was there in the book and ran with it, and the result was a thing of beauty and a joy forever.)

I must say, while I’m on the topic, that I’ve always had a soft spot for Mr. Guppy. How could you dislike him when he’s so utterly inoffensive? Even when he backs off from his proposal to Esther because of her disfigurement – while we do find ourselves justly annoyed at him – he tries his best, in his way, to do so in a tactful and gentlemanly way. And he also changes his mind about that in any case.

The next category is characters who were well-done but who I don’t have very much to say about. They don’t strike me as superlatively excellent in the same way as the aforementioned, but they’re still good. In this category I’d put Pauline Collins as Miss Flite (she’s not how I picture Miss Flite at all, but she nevertheless did a very good job of getting across the frail dignified little lady of the book), Patrick Kennedy as Richard, Alun Armstrong as Inspector Bucket (who was very funny while bringing a real depth and likeability to his role), Phil Davis as Smallweed, and Nathaniel Parker as Skimpole. His portrayal felt a bit off to me; I think he came across as a little too obviously cunning…but on the whole he was good.

And the scene where Esther tells him off is supremely satisfying.

Dr. Woodcourt was good too. To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t feel like Dr. Woodcourt had really any characterization to speak of in the book – he was just there to do vaguely nice doctor-y things and marry Esther – and they did a good job of fleshing him out and making him a real, likable character here.

The next category – which will require the most explanation – is characterizations that I have mixed thoughts about, even if I thought the actors in question did a good job.

Heading this list is Esther herself.

Mini-series-Esther is a very different character from book-Esther. Book-Esther was so modest and effacing as to (in my opinion, anyway) defy believability a bit. Mini-series-Esther has much more of a no-nonsense, sensible, let’s-get-things-done kind of personality, though not at the expense of being compassionate and caring. I have mixed thoughts about this change. On the one hand, I think there’s a overly-prevalent tendency in adaptations to change quieter Dickens heroines to make them more assertive, and generally speaking I don’t believe in messing around with characterizations more than is necessary. (And I also don’t believe that if a heroine is quiet or naturally un-assertive that means she needs “fixing,” but this post will be long enough already without that rant.)

On the other hand, in Esther’s case I really do think that the original characterization felt just a bit over the top, and as I mentioned in my review of the book, I had some issues with book-Esther – while she was obviously meant to be very sweet and humble, Dickens kept throwing in little hints of snarkiness throughout her narration, and the whole effect was very off-putting to me. I complained about it before, and I probably will again, but a good example of this is how mean she was to Mr. Guppy when he proposed. She didn’t even grant him a modicum of respect, and that was unfair and unkind. Yes, he was a goofball, but he was honestly and sincerely offering her his affection and he deserved to be turned down kindly and respectfully.

And Esther’s characterization in the mini-series fixed that. She felt like a much more cohesive character than book-Esther to me (and was not a jerk to Mr. Guppy! while still being firm and direct!), and on the whole I might actually say that mini-series Esther is an improvement on the book.

Next is Denis Lawson as Mr. Jarndyce. I think that the film-makers wanted to make clear that an Esther/Mr. Jarndyce romance wouldn’t work, and to do that they changed Mr. Jarndyce’s character a bit. He comes across as a bit too…I don’t want to say self-serving, since he still seem like a very kind and caring person…but, well, yes, he did seem a little bit self-serving as far as Esther was concerned. Rather than just being a really, really nice person who wanted to make Esther happy and also happened to be in love with her (as was the case in the book), it felt a bit at times like he was trying to earn Esther’s affection or manipulate her into loving him or some such. It’s hard to describe, but their relationship felt a bit gross and off in a way that it didn’t in the book. They also had his and Esther’s personalities clash more – they showed Esther sometimes feeling rather suffocated by his kindnesses, which was never the case in the book.

In a way this makes sense, since presumably they want audiences to root for Esther and Dr. Woodcourt, not Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. To be quite frank with you, in the book I do ship Esther and Mr. Jarndyce, and they succeed at their effort to make that less do-able in the mini-series. But that also makes me mad, because I love Mr. Jarndyce and – while he’s still likeable here – I think he’s less endearing than he was in the book.

Mr. Tulkinghorn is also a bit changed from the book. In the book, Mr. Tulkinghorn is frightening in his utter immovability in the face of human suffering, but you don’t get the feeling that he actively enjoys inflicting suffering. In the mini-series, you do get that sense. Here he’s actively malicious and actively delights in making others miserable. He’s not a very subtle villain…but he is a very creepy one. (And honestly, Dickens villains aren’t always super subtle. So I’m not going to complain about this too much.)

I like Carey Mulligan’s Ada for the most part – she’s loving and pretty and sweet without being ditzy. But as the mini-series goes on and Richard starts going further and further off the rails, I don’t like how they have Ada grow further apart from Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. For one thing, it’s Sad, and for another thing, in the book it’s made very explicit that she DOESN’T do that. In the mini-series they have her be downright snippy to Esther after she reveals to her that she’s married – as Esther is sitting there flabbergasted she says something to the effect of “well, you kept a secret from me, so I returned the favor” in a nasty, snooty sort of way. And I found that vexing. So while I think the casting is good, I really don’t like Ada’s characterization as much in the mini-series as I did in the book.

Hortense feels a bit off to me too. A large part of that is probably due to her being older than she’s meant to be in the book – it makes her motivations and jealousy of Rosa and everything feel a little weird.

There’s only one characterization that I just plain don’t like, and that’s Sergeant George. He’s not at all the same character as he was in the book, and that saddens me, because I loved his character in the book. While his book-character could certainly be overly impulsive, he was also very gentle and compassionate and very much gave off “gentle giant” vibes. In the mini-series he didn’t; he seemed much harder and more hot-headed. He was still a good guy, mind you, but he didn’t have that endearing sweetness at all, and I really missed it. In the mini-series you really could believe that he might murder Mr. Tulkinghorn, which I didn’t think you could in the book.

There are many more characters I could talk about, but I think I’ll leave it at that…there are such an abundance of them that if I tried to cover all of them we’d be here all day. (Though I’ll mention in passing that, though his character was made up, I grew rather fond of Clamb. It grieved me deeply when he succumbed to Low Tricks.)

When I first started watching Bleak House I was rather distracted by the filming style – it’s filmed very stylistically at times, and I’m not sure how to describe it other than to say it’s sometimes shot like a modern trailer. We get weird whooshing noises and extreme zoom-ins and clanging sounds as the scene changes to a new location and things like that. You actually get used to that very quickly, though, and it fits the darker aesthetic of Bleak House much better than it would for many other period dramas…I do not think it would work in an Austen film, for instance.

Another interesting choice is that the episodes are mostly split into half-hour segments; since the mini-series as a whole is quite long, this means there are about fourteen or fifteen episodes. I rather liked that; it sort of mimicked the serial way that the novel was originally published, and it also stretched it out and made it feel longer, which I liked. (It was also a highly addictive way of splitting it up, though. Once you get into it it’s very hard to just watch one episode.)

There isn’t much to say regarding plot changes, because so little was changed at all. Some minor things were condensed/dropped/tweaked because of time concerns (which makes sense, considering how exceedingly long the book is), but off the top of my head I can’t think of any real major departures from the book. The only thing big enough to mention – which still isn’t really a departure – is that the part where they’re searching for Lady Dedlock feels very truncated from what it was in the book. In the book it took up a LOT of time, while at the same time being very engrossing because you didn’t know what was going to happen and you felt highly concerned for everyone involved. (Especially poor Sir Leicester. I had no idea when I began the book that I would end it feeling heartbroken for Sir Leicester, but here we are.) They also changed it in the mini-series so that Lady Dedlock doesn’t die until right after Esther finds her…which I kind of liked better. It’s at least a shade less depressing that she saw her daughter once more before she died.

It also feels like there’s absolutely no processing time for Esther after her mother dies, but I get it – time concerns and all that.

Also – this is not really relevant, but I might as well mention it since we’re already talking about sad things – let the records show that while there were many moments throughout in which I felt Anguished and Teary-Eyed, you know the one part that really got me and made me weep? When Mr. Jarndyce gave up Esther at the end. Poor Mr. Jarndyce. I know I complained about his portrayal earlier, but that scene was done so well, on both his and Esther’s part.

Oh yes, and that reminds me of one other thing that annoyed me – when Esther tells Dr. Woodcourt that she can’t marry him because she’s engaged to Mr. Jarndyce, his reaction is pretty much “you’re WHAT?? Eww gross,” and this annoys me because 1) it is very rude and 2) at the time that the story is set, the age difference between Esther and Mr. Jarndyce wouldn’t have been the big deal that it would be now. A thirty year age gap might not have been something that happened every day, but it certainly wouldn’t have been unusual enough that Dr. Woodcourt would have been disgusted at the very idea.

Well, I think that’s enough rambling from me for now. Have you seen the 2005 Bleak House? Do you like it? Who are your favorite characters/favorite overall Dickens characters?