Moll Flanders (1996)

This is an epic and unexpected period tale with some rather out of place modern touches to the story. It covers quite a sweeping journey from orphanage to whorehouse to art to class differences to the New World. Whatever the differences from the novel, it is a moderately watchable movie.There are some hits and misses with the casting. Robin Wright in the title role is a bit old for the role - when she tries to play a virgin wench it's a bit frightful. Might have been better to use a different actress for the earlier part and then switch to her. Stockard Channing is suitably grotesque as the madam. Morgan Freeman is watchable even though his accent is neither here nor there. The English cast is more convincing but I guess they needed some international names for box office draw.Overall worth a watch but not a great movie.

Defoe's original novel, even after all these years, is funny, sad, entertaining and fast-moving. The film is basically only sad, with little resemblance to the novel. It is also dreadfully slow in parts. Some of the acting is good- Stockard Channing makes an excellent Madam, and Aisling Corcoran as the little girl is splendid, producing the few flashes of humour, and there are some very nice cameo parts from well-known British and Irish actors. However, Morgan Freeman (normally a very good actor) seems to have a rather variable accent and to be wondering how he got into this film (not quite Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins, but...), and Robin Wright doesn't really convince me as a lower-class London girl. The costumes and settings give a good impression of what must have been a much less colourful world- particularly effective are the candle-lit indoor scenes. We get an interesting glimpse of the life and customs of late 17th-century/early 18th century England. However, there are some strange anachronisms- for instance, according to the novel, Moll was born in about 1614, but the clients at Mrs Allworthy's house seem to pay with bank-notes, which would have been extremely unusual at that time. Also I doubt that any little girl (even a feisty one like this) brought up in a Catholic orphanage would have used such strong language. This is nit-picking, I know, and it's only a film, but it's a pity that, with a bit more attention to the story-line and the script, the film could have been so much better.

Yet again Hollywood takes a literary classic and entirely reworks it. "The daughter of a thief, young Moll is placed in the care of a nunnery after the execution of her mother. However, the actions of an abusive priest lead Moll to rebel as a teenager, escaping to the dangerous streets of London." No, this doesn't happen at all. The novel she is handed off to family when her mother is sent to plantations a much more common sentence for criminals at that time when their crime was petty. Further when she was given to family of her mother she then made her way in to the hands of gypsies before being found in Colchester having run off and being taken in by the local Parish. Not "the streets of London" right off the bat. Completely different tone, I understand the need to revise a work for the screen as it may be unworkable from it's original form but this is just an example of another movie where they've reworked the material needlessly and changed the subject matter much to the detriment of the work making the character much more sympathetic. Sad thing is it's a habit of Hollywood that will surely not change.

Morgan Freeman uses his immense talent to give varied facets to Mr. Hibble, Stockard Channing is deliciously evil as Mrs. Allworthy, and Robin Wright Penn shines like a diamond in the role of Moll Flanders. Even the child playing Flora does a charming job with her limited part. Some viewers complained that the film was slow moving, but i felt the transitions from "modern day" to "flashbacks" from the memoir written by the title character kept things moving along quite nicely. Having not read Defoe's book, I cannot compare it to this version, but members here seem about equally divided between hating the movie for not being true to the book, and feeling that the changes made are an improvement on the original. Personally, I'd recommend this movie highly to anyone who has time to watch it.