Great Expectations (2013)

More tweens and teens should consider this satisfying adaptation as an introduction to Dickens beyond A Christmas Carol. Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) takes his turn adapting one of English literature's most often retold tales of mystery, social climbing, and the ways money and desire can either enrich or corrupt the soul. Irvine, with his earnest face and strong arms is as believable as a blacksmith as he is a gentleman. He plays the coming-of-age Pip with an initial sweetness that makes the bitter, sad twists of the story that much more horrifying. Pip is so besotted with Estella (Grainger, lovely and icy just as Estella is meant to be played), he can't see how good and attentive a woman Biddy (Jessie Cave) is, or how the life of an honest tradesman should not be so easily dismissed.

Newell and screenwriter David Nicholls don't stick page for page to Dickens' story, and the script is tighter, more streamlined, and in some ways a relief (for film audiences) over the beloved original. Bonham Carter and Fiennes are fabulous as the perpetually bitter Miss Havisham and the tragic thief Magwitch, as are Hawkins and Flemyng as Pip's cruel sister and his surprisingly warm brother-in-law. Dickens may not paint love with a swoony, bantering brush like Jane Austen, but his themes are just as universal and substantial.