Everyone has heard of Charles Dickens; I'm willing to bet, though, that Nicholas Nickelby is not particularly well known as one of his novels. It's one of Dickens' early works, and tends to be overshadowed by his more famous later novels. Nonetheless, it offers the classic Dickensian formula of a young man thrown into a world populated by colorful characters, and caught up in an assortment of melodramatic intrigues.

This 2002 film production of Nicholas Nickelby tackles the massive novel with energy and enthusiasm, resulting in a film that's a lot of fun to watch. To begin with, the Victorian world of the novel is lavishly recreated, from the dismal interiors of Dotheboys Hall (which was actually a quite realistic portrayal of the cheap boarding schools of Dickens' time) to the bustling London streets. The appearance of the sets is in keeping with the story's slightly larger-than-life tone, with Ralph Nickelby's office decorated with a chilling assortment of stuffed and skeletal birds, and Nicholas's childhood home looking absolutely perfect in its charming rural setting. I was also impressed with the imaginative way in which the film was put together: a very clever opening sequence that takes us rapidly through Nicholas' birth and childhood does a great job of hooking the viewer for what's to come later, and throughout the film, the camera work is interesting and lively.

There's one glaring problem that renders Nicholas Nickelby forever less effective than it could have been: Charlie Hunnam, who takes on the title role, is a terrible actor. He certainly seems earnest enough, and it's clear that he's throwing himself into the part with enthusiasm, but... it just doesn't work. From his painfully stilted delivery of his lines, to his equally unconvincing dramatics in confrontational or emotional scenes, it's just plain bad. About the only scenes that come off even remotely well are the occasions when Nicholas is required to weep. Hunnam does handle that fairly deftly; perhaps he was cast on the strength of auditioning the "sadness over the death of my father" scene. But for the film overall, I found myself wishing vehemently that they'd cast just about anybody else in the part.

The rest of the ensemble cast, fortunately, is quite capable, handling the balance between drama and comedy deftly. Dickens always creates a varied and colorful assortment of secondary characters, who are presented here in all their glory. Director Douglas McGrath has taken the general approach of toning down Dickens' level of absurdity in his characters: we are shown people who certainly have their eccentricities, but the essential humanity of the characters is emphasized over their peculiarities. This is a wise move for the adaptation, I think; in Nicholas Nickelby Dickens does go a bit overboard in some of his caricatures, which in the novel undercuts rather than enriches the story.

Two of the characters in particular are "humanized" from Dickens' original portrayal. In the novel, Newman Noggs (Ralph Nickelby's clerk) is a complete wreck of a man, who can barely get out a coherent sentence, and is constantly producing grotesque grimaces and contortions. In the film, he is still presented as a rather odd man, and one who chafes under the necessity of working for a man he despises, but we see more clearly that he's the kind of person who has a good heart and is capable of reaching out to assist Nicholas in his time of need. Granted, there's none of the pathos of seeing the decrepit Noggs "coming out of his shell" under the reviving influence of Nicholas' friendship, but all things considered, it's no great loss. Similarly, the boy Smike is given a more realistic role in the film than in the novel, where he is mentally defective rather than physically crippled. The Smike of the novel is barely a character in his own right: he's much more of a pet, to be fussed over and sympathized with, but not to be viewed as a real human being. It's for this reason, I think, that the concluding events regarding Smike are disagreeably cloying in the novel, rather than affecting; while the film doesn't do a knockout treatment of those events, the overall impact is significantly more than in the original novel.

On the whole, the film ends up being quite entertaining. Nicholas Nickelby pushes aside the multitude of smaller plot threads and digressions in the original and embraces the essentials of Dickens' story: it's the tale of a young man dealing with being cast out of the nest too early. The film opens and closes with a voiceover narration that sets the tale clearly in this context, and in doing so, heightens the interest of the upcoming story. Nicholas' subsequent adventures have an element of the picaresque, but they're tied together by the theme of his own growth and search for security, as well as by the ongoing interference by his uncle.

These adventures bring in a variety of secondary characters, including the vicious schoolmaster Squeers, the amiable John Browdie, the theatrical family of the Crummles and the "Infant Phenomenon," the Cheeryble Brothers, and others. It would be easy to lose track of all these characters and their role in the plot, except that the film does such a good job of introducing the characters and incorporating them into the story that everything works out perfectly.

The DVD

Video

Nicholas Nickelby is presented in an anamorphically-enhanced widescreen transfer at the film's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Although a substantial chunk of the disc space is wasted by a pan-and-scan transfer on the flip side of the disc, the fact that this is a dual-layer as well as a double-sided DVD means that the widescreen version does have sufficient space. Colors are bright and vibrant, and have a nicely clean and natural look. Some edge enhancement appears in the image, but it's not obtrusive, and on the whole, the image is nicely sharp and detailed. As I'd expect with a recent film, the print is in perfect condition, with no flaws at all. The one fault with the transfer is that the black levels tend to be too high: in very dark scenes, shadowed areas become completely black, obliterating a substantial amount of the detail in the scene. On the whole, though, Nicholas Nickelby has a very pleasing appearance.

Audio

Nicholas Nickelby has a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, but while it's satisfactory on most counts, it's not as solid as I would have liked. Issues with the balance of the different parts of the soundtrack hold the film back from a higher rating. Some of the dialogue scenes (though not all of them) tend to be excessively low in volume compared to the music and environmental effects portions of the soundtrack. This is compounded by the fact that some of the characters tend to mumble. Apart from the balance problem, the sound quality is quite good: it's clean and natural-sounding. 

Extras

The Nicholas Nickelby DVD offers a reasonable selection of special features. "Creating a Classic: The Making of Nicholas Nickelby" is a 30-minute documentary with eleven parts covering various aspects of the film, including the casting process, the screenplay, costumes, sets, and so on. (A helpful "play all" feature is included.) This featurette offers an interesting glimpse into the making of the film, with interviews from various members of the cast and crew. "The Cast on the Cast" is a 17-minute piece in which the actors reminisce about their experiences; it tends to be one of those "mutual admiration" pieces but may be of interest. The other main special feature is a full-length audio commentary from director Douglas McGrath.

Several minor special features are also included. The "View on the Set" section offers multi-angle views of five different scenes. A photo gallery, a trailer for the film, and trailers for other MGM films (Die Another Day, The Princess Bride, and Evelyn) round out the DVD.

Final thoughts

Nicholas Nickelby has one major flaw (its lead actor's performance), but on balance it's a thoroughly entertaining movie with a nice sense of energy and enough other factors in its favor to make it worth watching, including a good ensemble cast, excellent pacing, and a great deal of visual appeal. Lightweight but fun, and presented nicely in its DVD transfer, Nicholas Nickelby earns a "recommended" from me.