Little Dorrit

'Make money, sir. Be as rich as you honestly can, sir.' Little Dorrit is about lucre - filthy and otherwise - so Christine Edzard's masterful two part adaptation of Dickens' novel has a peculiar relevance for today. Part I (Nobody's Fault) tells the tale of fortunes lost and found, of secrets buried and unearthed, from the viewpoint of Arthur Clennam (Jacobi), who in his attempts to help the Dorrits abandons wealth and is brought to The Marshalsea, a debtors' prison. Part II (Little Dorrit's Story) relates the same story through the eyes of Little Dorrit herself (Pickering), the dutiful daughter of the 'Father of The Marshalsea' (Guinness), who forms a deep love for the oblivious Clennam. In the first part the powerful momentum of the narrative is broken by abrupt shifts back in time, but in the second the events ingeniously begin to overlap. Besides the excitement of the story, the chief delight of this epic production lies in the superb performances, which manage to convey Dickens' penchant for the grotesque while suggesting the inner life that many critics deny exists in the novel. Impressive camerawork and Verdi's music help make the six hours roll by far too quickly.