Little Dorrit.

Tonight I finally watched the last few episodes of Little Dorrit. {This post includes spoilers.}

Wow- I loved it! Between this mini series and Bleak House, I'm thinking that I really need to read a Charles Dickens novel. His stories are just huge and complex. So many little subplots intertwining with the main plot, and so many amazing, unforgettable characters. I really don't even know where to begin.

The characters all stand out to me. I love Amy Dorrit. She's so good and selfless (a little like Esther in Bleak House). I kept wondering how on earth she got born into such a kooky, selfish family. I've heard criticism that she's too perfect, and maybe she is. But I liked her a lot.

Matthew Macfadyen as Arthur Clennam. Oh my goodness. First of all, I have to reinforce that Matthew Macfadyen is my favorite Mr. Darcy. I like Colin Firth and all, but he is not the Mr. Darcy in my opinion. Other than Pride and Prejudice {2005-my most favorite movie ever}, I had only seen Matthew Macfadyen in two other films/mini series. One was the first episode of Any Human Heart, which I was so disgusted with that I only watched the first part. The other was The Way We Live Now, which I watched on Netflix streaming weeks ago. It was a very depressing series full of greedy, selfish people who all came to bad ends (ha. Sort of reminded me of Gone With the Wind). In that series, he plays a complete cad and spoiled mama's boy who whined a lot (the whining was a little amusing).

So this was very refreshing. Arthur is such a kind, good person. Like Amy, except a little less extreme. He was awesome. And it doesn't hurt that he's so darn handsome. :) Plus, he actually smiles a lot in this. He only smiles once in P&P, so it was nice to him grin more often.

Although sometimes Mr. Dorrit infuriated me with his pride and the way he treated Amy, I did like him. I felt so sorry for him, and you know it had to be a huge shock going from the debtor's prison to wealthy society practically overnight.

The rest of the family was worse. Fanny and Tip grated on my last nerve with their greed and arrogance and laziness. And (is this becoming a familiar theme yet?) the awful way they treated Amy. I did love their uncle, though. Especially the time he took up for Amy. I did not expect his end to come the way it did! Good grief.

And although of course I was totally biased towards Arthur, I did like John Chivery. He seemed to really care about Amy. The dramatic crying did get a little old, though. Move on, man. Move on. :)

Flora cracked me up. Always fluttering around, Arthur, I mean Mr. Clennam. Her aunt (?) was pretty hilarious, too.

Don't tell me I'm the only one who can only see Gollum when I see Rigaud. Ugh. He was an incredible villain, I'll give him that. He was so slimy and disgusting that I felt the urge to cringe every time he came on screen. {I loved the guy who was released from jail and was terrified of Rigaud, the one that ended up living with that family? He was awesome and always made me smile.}

Aw. Happily ever after. There were times during the series that I doubted this would ever happen. But it did!

Then there are tons of other characters I haven't even touched on: Flintwich, the Merdles, Mr. Sparkler, the Gowans, the Meagles, Maggy, Pancks. Pancks- I didn't like him at all at first. But he grew on me a lot, in his weird way. He wasn't a bad guy. Just a little odd. I loved it when he wanted Arthur to insult him for leading him into the bad business deal. :)

Little Dorrit is a wonderful mini series. I loved every bit of it. Like I said before, Charles Dickens does things on a grand scale. The characters are the best part of this story, but the plot itself was really interesting, too. I didn't know anything about debtors' prison before watching this. I just assumed that debtors went to the same prison as everyone else. I never thought about their families going with them.

The music was also really lovely, and so was the cinematography, though of course it's a lot darker than say, Jane Austen's film adaptations. :)

No spontaneous human combustion in this one. But I am wondering what made the Clennam house collapse out of the blue.

One last Matthew Macfadyen picture. I can't resist.

Until next time,