Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3251 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 465 minutes

Amazon.com
Andrew Davies isn't much of household name in the U.S., but he's the king of the BBC mini-series. His skillfully adapted scripts for Pride & Prejudice (the beloved Colin Firth version) and many, many more are peerless examples of classic novels done right--cunningly edited and shaped to let all the rich emotion and sharp intelligence spill over with zip and vigor. Bleak House is no exception; it's one of the best Dickens adaptations to date. The mini-series form allows Dickens' panoramic view, brimming with eccentric characters and complex turns of plot, to sprawl out without losing an iota of suspense or momentum. Two innocent young orphans (Patrick Kennedy and Carey Mulligan) are the potential heirs to a fortune, but their fates are snarled in a monumental legal battle known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. But the heart of the story is another orphan, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin), whose mysterious parentage proves to be intertwined with the fate of the Jarndyce wards and the aloof Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files). Dickens' story twines through an excoriating vision of the legal system to heartbreaking domestic drama to a murder investigation to near-Gothic horror, all broken into utterly delicious half-hour segments (after the hour-long opening episode). Martin is utterly beguiling, homely at one moment and luminous the next; Anderson's grippingly eerie and brittle performance will delight her fans. But to single out anyone seems absurd, because every character--from the vicious lawyer Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance, White Mischief) to the foppish parasite Skimpole (Nathaniel Parker, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) to the simpering clerk Guppy (Burn Gorman)--is intricately drawn, all hitting a mesmerizing balance between caricature and stark emotional honesty. Bleak House demonstrates that humor, pathos, and social criticism can all be contained in one wonderfully entertaining package. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Powerful story! And very well done.
After eating up this 7 hours + of Dicken's BLEAK HOUSE, I went immediately to Amazon and bought the DVD and the book. It's a great story and I want to read the novel and rewatch this wonderful BBC production. Highly recommended!

The Matrix goes to lit class
The good news: first-rate casting and acting, breathtaking sets and costumes, capable screenplay adaptation. The bad: Dickens' potboiler is nearly spoiled by excesses of murky, claustrophobic tight shots, dizzying cuts, and an appalling soundtrack.

The first irritant came early: the schlocky ambient loop "music" of the titles. In short order, the perplexing cuts piled up, scored with rifle-shot noises resembling PowerPoint slide-transition effects on steroids.

Do we really need swelling, synthesized thumpa-thumpa to clue us that Lady Dedlock is feeling strong emotion? Isn't it enough that she blanches, then faints? Dickens does not describe outright his characters' interior states, nor, do I think, should his adaptors.

The irritating editing and the larded-on sound effects nearly eclipsed the serial's great strengths. But despite these objections, we were hooked by the suspense, the setting, and the acting. More restraint (lose the synthesizer!) would have served this effort far better than than do the styles chosen. We'll be looking around for other versions.

Bleak House
This is an excellent series. I love Gillian Anderson since the X-Files and everytime I see her in a movie I buy it, I happened to rent this series through Net Flix and I liked it so much that I ordered it through Amazon for my collection.