Nicholas Nickleby is a 2002 comedy-drama film written and directed by Douglas McGrath

Douglas McGrath

Douglas Geoffrey McGrath is an American screenwriter. He is also a film director and actor.McGrath was nominated for a both an Academy Award and a BAFTA award for his Bullets Over Broadway screenplay...

. The screenplay is based on The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens' third novel....

by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

, which originally was published in serial

Serial (literature)

In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...

 form between March 1838 and September 1839.

Plot

In a prologue

Prologue

A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...

 we are introduced to the Nicklebys, who enjoy a comfortable life in the Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 countryside until the father dies and leaves his family with no source of income. Nineteen-year-old Nicholas, his mother, and his younger sister Kate venture to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to seek help from their wealthy, cold-hearted uncle Ralph, an investor who arranges for Nicholas to be hired as a tutor

Tutor

A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...

 at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 and finds Kate work as a seamstress.

Nicholas is horrified to discover his employers, the sadistic Mr. and Mrs. Squeers, run their boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 like a prison and physically, verbally, and emotionally abuse their young charges on a regular basis. He eventually rebels and escapes, taking with him young crippled Smike. As they journey to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, they stumble upon a theatrical troupe owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Crummles. They cast them in a production of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, but despite a successful first night and the couple's invitation to stay, Nicholas is determined to continue their journey to London to learn how his mother and sister are faring.

Nicholas is reunited with his family, who welcome Smike as one of their own, and finds employment with the Cheeryble brothers, and makes the acquaintance of Madeline Bray, an artist who is the sole support of herself and her tyrannical father, who gambled away his fortune and that of his late wife. Nicholas discovers his sister Kate has been subjected to humiliating sexual attention from lecherous Sir Mulberry Hawk, a client of their uncle, who has encouraged the man to seduce his niece in the hope she will succumb and thus cement Hawk's business relationship with him. Nicholas' determination to defend his sister's honor leads his uncle to vow he will destroy the young man. What ensues is a series of adventures in which the upstanding Nicholas manages to survive the schemes of his evil uncle, including an attempt to return Smike to Squeers and an effort to abort Nicholas' growing relationship with Madeline by promising her father he will excuse his debts if the girl weds Hawk. Ralph's designs on Madeline are thwarted when her father dies unexpectedly. Unfortunately, Smike falls ill and soon dies. Soon after, a sinister secret Ralph has harbored for years surfaces, and it is revealed Smike was Ralph's son, whom he had thought dead. Realizing that his son had died the best friend of his most hated enemy, Ralph hangs himself. Nicholas marries Madeline.

Major differences from the novel

Screenwriter and director Douglas McGrath remained generally faithful to the novel, but in adapting an 800-page novel into a two-hour film, much of the detail is necessarily lost. Major changes to the novel include:

• The characters of the Mantolinis, Miss Knag, the Kenwigs family, Arthur Gride, Mr. Gregsbury, Snawley, Pyke, Pluck, the Wittiterlys, Miss Snevelicci, Miss Petowker, Peg Sliderscew and Tim Linkenwater are all deleted.
• The characters of Mrs. Nickleby, Miss LaCreevey, Mr. Lenville and Tilda Price have their importance greatly reduced.
• Sir Mulberry Hawke becomes a composite of both Hawke in the novel and Arthur Gride. His duel with Lord Verisopht is deleted
• In the novel, Nicholas has no involvement with Smike's rescue when Squeers kidnaps him, which is undertaken wholly by John and Tilda Browdie.
• Madeline is introduced earlier in the film than she is in the novel, and the entire subplot involving her grandfather's will is deleted.
• Smike's death in the novel takes place after Madeline's aborted wedding, not before as in the film.
• The order of events after Nicholas' escape from Dotheboys Hall is simplified: in the novel, Nicholas goes to Yorkshire to London, where he is denounced by Ralph and forced to leave under the threat of abandonment of Kate and Mrs. Nickleby. He then travels to Portsmouth, where he meets the Crummles. In the film, Nicholas goes directly from Yorkshire to meeting Crummles, here in Liverpool instead of Portsmouth.
• Noggs verbally offers aid to Nicholas before he leaves with Squeers. In the novel, his speech is delivered by letter.
• Squeers' arrest and the dissolution of Dotheboys Hall is deleted.
• Nicholas spends much less time with the Crummles company than he does in the novel.
• Mr. Folair's specialty of the highland fling is only briefly touched on in the novel.

Production notes

In Creating a Classic: The Making of Nicholas Nickleby, a bonus feature on the film's DVD release, screenwriter/director Douglas McGrath and his cast and crew discuss the development of the project. The positive audience reaction to a stage reading of the screenplay in a theater in lower Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, which included a number of actors who eventually were cast in the film, convinced McGrath to proceed with the movie. At the request of production designer

Production designer

In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...

 Eve Stewart, he advanced the time frame from the 1830s to the 1850s so she could incorporate elements of the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

 into her design plans.

Jamie Bell

Jamie Bell

Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Billy Elliot , King Kong , Hallam Foe , Jumper , Defiance , The Eagle and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn .- Early life :Bell was born in Billingham, in the Borough of...

's audition for the role of Smike in a London hotel room left McGrath and the producers in tears, and they cast him on the spot. While considering Mrs. Crummles, a smug, opinionated, but lovable dowager

Dowager

A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....

, McGrath realized all her traits and characteristics were embodied by Dame Edna Everage

Dame Edna Everage

Dame Edna is a character created and played by Australian dadaist performer and comedian, Barry Humphries, famous for her lilac-coloured or "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses or "face furniture," her favorite flower, the gladiola and her boisterous greeting: "Hello Possums!" As Dame Edna,...

, alter ego

Alter ego

An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...

 of actor Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...

, but was hesitant to suggest casting a male in the role. The producers, however, agreed Humphries was an ideal choice. Nicholas was one of the last roles to be cast. Charlie Hunnam

Charlie Hunnam

Charles Matthew "Charlie" Hunnam is an English actor. He is perhaps best known to UK audiences as Pete Dunham in Green Street Hooligans and as Nathan Maloney in the Channel 4 hit drama Queer as Folk and to US audiences as Vice President of Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original Jackson...

 had been sent the script, but several months passed before he had an opportunity to read it. He met with McGrath, and based on a couple of hours of conversation with the actor, the director felt he finally had found the right man for the part. Ironically, the British Hunnam had to work with a dialect coach; having lived and worked in the US for the past several years, he had perfected an American accent in order to ensure regular employment.

Costume design

Costume design

Costume design is the fabrication of apparel for the overall appearance of a character or performer. This usually involves researching, designing and building the actual items from conception. Costumes may be for a theater or cinema performance but may not be limited to such...

er Ruth Myers opted to dress two of the leading characters in clothing pre-dating the period in which the film is set in order to suggest Nicholas, as the newly anointed head of his family, wore clothing inherited from his father, and the impoverished Madeline's dresses were hand-me-downs from her mother in Borehamwood

Borehamwood

-Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...

 and Three Mills Studios

Three Mills

The Three Mills are former working mills on the River Lea in the East End of London, one of London’s oldest extant industrial centres. The largest and most powerful of the four remaining tidal mills is possibly the largest tidal mill in the world...

 in the East End of London

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

.

The film grossed $1,587,173 in the US and $2,064,289 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $3,651,462 .

Principal cast

• Charlie Hunnam
  Charlie Hunnam
  Charles Matthew "Charlie" Hunnam is an English actor. He is perhaps best known to UK audiences as Pete Dunham in Green Street Hooligans and as Nathan Maloney in the Channel 4 hit drama Queer as Folk and to US audiences as Vice President of Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original Jackson...
  
   ..... Nicholas Nickleby
• Jamie Bell
  Jamie Bell
  Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Billy Elliot , King Kong , Hallam Foe , Jumper , Defiance , The Eagle and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn .- Early life :Bell was born in Billingham, in the Borough of...
  
   ..... Smike
• Christopher Plummer
  Christopher Plummer
  Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
  
   ..... Ralph Nickleby
• Anne Hathaway
  Anne Hathaway (actress)
  Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
  
   ..... Madeline Bray
• Tom Courtenay
  Tom Courtenay
  Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
  
   ..... Newman Noggs
• Jim Broadbent
  Jim Broadbent
  James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
  
   ..... Wackford Squeers
• Juliet Stevenson
  Juliet Stevenson
  Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
  
   ..... Mrs. Squeers
• Romola Garai
  Romola Garai
  Romola Sadie Garai is an English actress. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the BBC adaptation of Emma.-Early life:...
  
   ..... Kate Nickleby
• Stella Gonet
  Stella Gonet
  Stella Gonet is a Scottish theatre, film and TV actress.- Career :Gonet trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and is known for playing Beatrice Eliott, one of the two lead roles, in three series of the television drama, The House Of Eliott and Chief Executive Officer Jayne...
  
   ..... Mrs. Nickleby
• Heather Goldenhersh
  Heather Goldenhersh
  Heather Goldenhersh is an award-winning American actress. She has appeared on Broadway, on television, and in feature films....
  
   ..... Fanny Squeers
• Nathan Lane
  Nathan Lane
  Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
  
   ..... Vincent Crummles
• Barry Humphries
  Barry Humphries
  John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
  
   ..... Mrs. Crummles
• Alan Cumming
  Alan Cumming
  Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
  
   ..... Mr. Folair
• Timothy Spall
  Timothy Spall
  Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
  
   ..... Charles Cheeryble
• Gerard Horan
  Gerard Horan
  Gerard Horan is an English actor. Born in Stockport, Cheshire, Horan has appeared in many of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films, most recently as Denis in the 2006 As You Like It. He has worked extensively in theatre, film and television....
  
   ..... Ned Cheeryble
• William Ash
  William Ash
  William Ash MBE, was a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, writer, and Marxist.Born into a lower middle-class family in Dallas, Texas, Ash was a migrant worker during the U.S Great Depression and took a University course, doing privileged pupils' essays in order to gain money and also for his personal...
  
   ..... Frank Cheeryble
• Edward Fox
  Edward Fox (actor)
  Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
  
   ..... Sir Mulberry Hawk
• David Bradley
  David Bradley (actor)
  David Bradley is an English character actor. He has recently become known for playing the caretaker of Hogwarts, Argus Filch, in the Harry Potter film franchise.-Life and career :...
  
   ..... Mr. Nigel Bray
• Phil Davis ..... Brooker
• Kevin McKidd
  Kevin McKidd
  Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
  
   ..... John Browdie
• Nicholas Rowe
  Nicholas Rowe (actor)
  Nicholas James Sebastian Rowe is a Scottish actor.-Biography:Rowe was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of English parents Alison, a singer, and Andrew Rowe, a Member of Parliament and editor. He attended Eton and received a BA in Hispanic Studies from Bristol University...
  
   ..... Lord Verisopht
• Sophie Thompson
  Sophie Thompson
  Sophie Thompson is an award-winning English actress, best known for playing Stella Crawford in EastEnders.-Early life:...
  
   ..... Miss Lacreevy
• Andrew Havill
  Andrew Havill
  -Life and career:Havill has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre, and was in The Woman in Black in London's West End...
  
   ..... Mr. Nickleby
• Angus Wright
  Angus Wright
  Angus Wright is professor emeritus and one of the founders of the Environmental Studies program at California State University, Sacramento, where he taught from 1972–2005. Wright earned his Ph.D...
  
   ..... Mr. Pluck

Critical response

In his review in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, A.O. Scott called the film "two hours of swift, engaging entertainment" and added, "The book's theme and spirit have been dutifully respected. No, what Mr. McGrath has done with admirable modesty is better than that. Rather than trying to update, transform or otherwise interpret Nickleby, he has decided to share his enthusiasm for it . . . [He] has adapted [Dickens' dialogue] with a scholar's ear and a showman's flair . . . [and] produced a colorful, affecting collage of Dickensian moods and motifs, a movie that elicits an overwhelming desire to plunge into 900 pages of 19th-century prose."

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 of the Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

said, "The movie is jolly and exciting and brimming with life, and wonderfully well-acted."

In the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, Mick LaSalle

Mick LaSalle

Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...

 observed, "It took Dickens 65 chapters, and it took the famous stage production eight hours to tell the story of Nicholas Nickleby. But in the new movie, writer-director Douglas McGrath manages to tell it all in 132 minutes, without the story ever seeming rushed or curtailed. Instead, the impression is one of abundance: It's a generous tale, told through big performances by a talented cast."

Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...

 of Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

awarded the film three out of a possible four stars and commented, "Christopher Plummer steals the show without resorting to camp

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

 as Nicholas' wounded and wounding Uncle Ralph. It's a great performance and a reminder of Dickens' grandeur. This CliffsNotes

CliffsNotes

CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides available primarily in the United States. The guides present and explain literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature...

 of a film, though lively fun, only hints at that. No matter. I'll take the hint."

In Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, David Rooney described the film as "a delightful experience. The sacrifices of condensing Dickens' massive novel to standard feature length are discernible, especially in the title character's discovery of love. But while it's told in conventional fashion, the heart of this tale of a young man's quest to rescue his family from villainy and misfortune is lovingly rendered by a mostly superlative cast and with an entertaining balance of humor and pathos . . . McGrath's approach is old-fashioned but appealing, using a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

istic style that relies on voiceover

VoiceOver

VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...

 to get through much of the initial exposition. His script captures the scope, humor and compassion of Dickens' novel and drives the picaresque story along at a lively clip."

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. It received the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast

National Board of Review Award for Best Cast

The National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble is an annual film award given by the National Board of Review.-1990s:...

, and Romola Garai was nominated for the Jameson People's Choice Award for Best European Actress at the European Film Awards.