AllMovie

Heavy fog enshrouds the soot, smoke, and corrupt legal system of London in this atmospheric adaptation of one of Charles Dickens' finest novels, Bleak House. Director Ross Devenish peoples the production with outstanding character actors portraying creeps, ne'er-do-wells, doddering fools, and the worst of the lot, lawyers. While the main plot focuses on a languishing case before the High Court of Chancery, several subplots deal with love, a devastating secret, the mistreatment of an innocent child, and murder. All of these themes form a tapestry illustrating the good and bad of the human condition in 19th century England. Denholm Elliot as John Jarndyce and Diana Rigg as Lady Dedlock perform their leading roles with the excellence expected of them. But equally impressive are the little-known but well-trained actors who step their characters off the printed page and into the lap of viewers. Bernard Hepton bends eccentricity into new and wonderfully Dickensian shapes as Krook, the raspy-voiced proprietor of a rag-and-bottle shop whose dust and murk symbolize the Chancery. Sylvia Coleridge, as Miss Flite, turns insanity into a sanely solid stone wall; if you are a lunatic, you are beyond the grasp of the lawyers. Peter Vaughan, as a pathologically evil attorney, gives lawyers the bad name they deserve. The production is not without fault, however. In particular, no narrative voice or onscreen text helps the audience through the complex plot. Consequently, viewers unfamiliar with the novel or Dickens' themes may get lost somewhere between the egoism of Mr. Skimpole and the altruism of Esther Summerson (Suzanne Burden). However, if they stick with the film, all 391 minutes of it, they should catch on eventually and wonder what will happen in the end to Lady Dedlock and whether Richard Carstone (Philip Franks) gets his due from the Chancery.