For Love or Money

Nicholas Nickleby

Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
2002

If you could ever imagine a Jane Austen novel meeting a Charles Dickens novel in the world of screen adaptations, United Artist's Nicholas Nickleby would be it.

True, Jane Austen died in 1817, the year Dickens (1812-1870) turned five, so their lives barely overlapped. Both were social commentators. Jane Austen wrote about the trials and tribulations of women folk of the landed gentry at the dawn of the industrial revolution who had to make a good marriage in order to survive. Inherited wealth was becoming a thing of the past and the social status of the female "species" was only beginning to change (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, etc.) The characters' dilemmas about the need for money while yearning for a love match rather than an arranged marriage, still attracts readers and viewers today. Jane Austen is one of the forerunners or prophets, if you will, of equal rights for women. Charles Dickens was a voice for the "anawim" of industrialized England's, especially London's, poorest of the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed: men, women and children. In Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, and others, Dickens documents, usually in dark, torturous yet romantic tones, the consequences of industrialization, and how far human beings will go for money or for love.

Director and writer Douglas McGrath's 2002 rather charming period-drama interpretation of Nicholas Nickleby is the fifth film and/or television version to be made (cf. www.imdb.org) of Dickens's lesser known classic. The current film is a somewhat "pruned" interpretation of the novel, for which we can be thankful (English Literature teachers aside), for the novel is rife in characters and details, not all quite relevant to the plot. Despite taking 800 pages of the book and turning it into a 130 minute movie, the film is mostly faithful to Dickens's Victorian tale of a young man's journey to a secure job and a lovely wife. Like the novel, it does the film does not always explain the appearance of characters, their actions or the plot twists. It doesn't matter too much, though, because it all comes out right in the end. The story is a social satire and for all its melodrama, it is funny and warm.

Nicholas Nickleby, Sr. (Andrew Havill), has just died of a broken heart, having lost all the money he had when he speculated unwisely in the relatively new form of business which we know today as capital investments. He leaves a wife (Stella Gonet), a nineteen year-old son also named Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam), and a beautiful daughter, Kate (Romola Garai.) Unable to sell their home because of the poor housing market, the family travels to London to ask miserly and unethical investment advisor Uncle Ralph (Christopher Plummer) for help. Ralph gets Nicholas a job as an assistant teacher to Mr. Squeers (John Broadbent) in faraway Yorkshire, and finds employment for Mrs. Nickleby and Kate, who live with a painter of miniatures, Miss Lacreevy (Sophie Thompson.)

Nicholas abhors the cruelty of Mr. Squeer's school and runs away, accompanied by the crippled orphan, Smike (Jamie Bell.) They come upon a theater manager, Vincent Crummels (the brilliant Nathan Lane along with "wife" Mrs. Crummels played by Dame Edna Everage) who gives them jobs as actors. Nicholas receives word that not all is well in London, so he and Smike leave the haven of the theater in Liverpool for London to rescue his family from the myriad machinations of Uncle Ralph, financial and otherwise. Along this journey, Nicholas does rescue his family, and finds a good job with sound investment bankers, Smite finds out what family really means, and both Nicholas and Kate find their dream spouses. Love and money, lack of money and love.

The "family" is a prominent, recurring theme in Nicholas Nickleby. The film ends in a romantic vein with Mr. Crummels saying that for the story's characters, family is not just "those whom they share blood" but those "for whom they would give their blood." Kindness and generosity can and does extend the bonds of family, good is rewarded and evil punished.

The dictionary says that "satire" is a literary work that "holds up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn." What Dickens does in his novel and Douglas by extension of time, place and medium, does in his film, is to satirize several elements of his society: the new money market generated by industrialization, the temptation "to speculate" to make more money, the way blood ties are thinned when money is involved, and the consequences of unbridled greed on the dignity of human persons and activity - and on love.

One interesting "image" that emerges in the film and that is roundly satirized, is the Calvinist/Jansenist view of the human person (and God) that was common in Europe (and the America's) from the 17^th century on. While these were religious "images," they sifted into other domains as the West became more secularized. This image of the human person was that human nature is essentially depraved, and that a negative educational pedagogy, rather than one founded in grace and hope, was more effective in the education of children. To be called "proud" was the worst observation that can be made about a person. For example, when Mrs. Squeers (Juliet Stevenson) takes a dislike to Nicholas (whom she always calls "Knuckleboy") because of his achievements, she states, "He is proud; he must be wounded." She then proceeds to punish him and others for no other reason than to humiliate them for the sake of humiliation. This part of the film offeres insight into the psychology of the characters and would be a whole other way to approach the movie. Above all, Nicholas Nickleby demonstrates that love is stronger than the worst that human beings can do to one another, whatever the reason.

Nicholas Nickleby is not a grand film, but similar to a Victorian-style play or Christmas pantomime set on a stage that is filmed for our enjoyment. We know from the opening credits that we aren't going to see much character development, but rather a series of acts and scenes, characters and caricatures, very much like we find in Dickens's episodic writing. The camera is almost always looking straight on and the scenes set up in perfect symmetry. These elements and Mr. Crummels commentary on theater add "theater" itself to the targets of the film's considerable and enjoyable satire.

Like the novel, there is squalor, cruelty, and violence in the film, but at the same time, it can be very saccharine. Amid its comedic and hopeful turns, the viewer will chuckle and get the serious points the story makes. What's more important, love or money? Isn't there enough of both to go around? All corporate executives from Enron on down: are you listening? Is corporate greed really a laughing matter or is it so tragic that all we can do is laugh until we cry? As with all worthwhile movies, Nicholas Nickleby will make you think even as it lets you laugh at the pretensions - and sinfulness - of our human vices and follies.

In an introduction to the 1994 Everyman edition of Nicholas Nickleby, David Parker wrote that the novel is, "thematically closely focused, driven by personal passion, and for the most part, dazzling in style, characterization and comedy." I am not sure the film dazzles, but it surely sparkles. Nicholas Nickleby is good choice for lighter holiday fare.