Written and directed by Armando Iannucci
Starring Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie and Tilda Swinton
Running time: 1 hour and 59 minutes
MPAA rating: PG for thematic material and brief violence

be Ryan Smillie

A Charles Dickens adaptation is supposed to be dreary. Impoverished orphans in factories, delinquent debtors in prison, jilted lovers in faded wedding dresses. And these elements certainly play a major role in Dickens’s novels, through which Dickens sought to expose and satirize the bleak conditions and hidden inequalities of Victorian society. Equally present, however, are the novels’ timeless sense of humor and their unforgettably distinct characters.