10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE February 14, 2003

out

Queer as the Dickens

The cast, including one in drag, works well in this sumptuous Nicholas Nickleby

A big-screen version of Nicholas Nickelby, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, is a sumptuous adaptation that works well for the most part.

Dickens' novels are hard to pare down to a manageable length for a feature film, and yet writer and director Douglas McGrath has done an admirable job. McGrath understands that for any Dickens work to make sense on film, one has to focus on character and let the plot be made as fluid as possible.

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This Nicholas Nickelby has assembled a marvelous ensemble that is one of the queerest this year.

Nathan Lane, his bubbly, lovable self as usual, plays Vincent Crummles, a theatrical director who helps Nicholas and Smike in their journey to find justice and a safe home for themselves. Lane is flowery, funny and fabulous as he fumbles around with his amateur cast of actors in mounting a most queer production of the Bard's Romeo and Juliet.

Playing Lane's wife is none other than Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphrey's drag alter ego). As Mrs. Crummles, Dame Edna is a period version of her more contemporary drag persona and watching her along with Lane is a complete hoot. This is a brave bit of cross-gender casting that works very well and should be a call to other directors to take more such risks with non-traditional casting.

Openly gay actor Alan Cumming plays Mr. Folair, one of the actors in the Crummles' theatrical company. Cumming's role is small but he finds the humor in it every step of the

way.

Jim Broadbent, who won a Supporting Actor Oscar last year for playing bisexual scribe Iris Murdoch's doting husband, takes an evil turn here as the one-eyed monstrosity Mr. Squeers, who runs a boy's orphanage in England amid the chaos of the Industrial Revolution. Broadbent is brilliantly hateful. Juliet Stevenson is equally despicable as his stern and evil wife.

Christopher Plummer as Ralph Nickelby, the evil uncle of the hero, is in top form. He steals every scene as he struggles to destroy his nephew and retain his status, power and wealth.

Jamie Bell, the young actor who stole the hearts and minds of audiences all over the world in Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot, is amazing as the crippled Smike. Bell once again turns in a very, very accomplished piece of acting. His every glance and nuance is pitch perfect.

The most disappointing part of this Nicholas Nickelby is the lead actor, Charley Hunnam. While he is dashing and physically commanding on screen, his acting is for the most part wooden and forced. Hunnam, who was brilliant as the gay teen who seeks sex with older men in the original British Queer as Folk, seems lost in a period film. Whereas he was brash, innocent and dazzling all at once in Folk, here he struggles to find the humanity and depths of his character.

Dame Edna and Nathan Lane

The relationship between Nicholas and Smike is created with a hint of homoerotic tension; whether this was intentional or not is unknown. From the longing glances and expressions of love between the two, to the use of Hunnam's perfectly chiseled torso which seems out of place in a period film-McGrath seems to be creating a more homoerotic relationship than seen in previous adaptations.

Nevertheless, Nicholas Nickelby is definitely worth watching. The second half moves along more deftly than the first and it is a rare treat to see so many brave casting choices work so well in a very traditional literary masterpiece. All the production values, from the costumes and art direction to the cinematography and the score, are masterful additions to this film.

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