Great Expectations (1998) on Netflix
Finn, an orphan on the Gulf Coast, is raised by his sister Maggie and her boyfriend Joe. When Joe becomes gardener at Nora Dinsmoor's mansion, Finn meets her niece Estella.
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- IMDb6.8/1060,922 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes41%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Florida, Finnegan Bell is a boy raised by his older sister Maggie and her boyfriend Joe. Joe takes work as gardener at Paradiso Perduto, the estate of the reclusive Nora Dinsmoor, who invites Finn to play with her niece Estella, a haughty girl who sits for a portrait he draws. Dinsmoor warns him that loving Estella will break his heart. Finn returns every Saturday and becomes a painter, but Estella leaves for Europe without a word and he abandons his painting. Seven years on, a lawyer brings word that his paintings have drawn the interest of a New York gallery, and in the city he meets Estella again, now with a wealthy businessman named Walter.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Great Expectations (1998)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ethan Hawke was initially not interested in playing Finn, feeling the story's class themes would work better in an American setting if the lead were Latino or African American; a meeting with director Alfonso Cuarón, whose enthusiasm impressed him, changed his mind.
- The voiceovers were not in the original screenplay; once the film was edited, producer Art Linson hired David Mamet, with whom he had worked on The Edge and The Untouchables, to write them, and Mamet went uncredited in the final film.
- Ca' d'Zan, the Sarasota mansion built in 1924 by Mable and John Ringling, stood in for Paradiso Perduto; its façade was dressed to look decrepit and overgrown, a gate was added to the avenue, and the ballroom and loggia were dressed for the dancing scenes.
- Ethan Hawke's character went unnamed for a while because Dickens's Pip sounded unpalatable in a modern setting; the production settled on Finnegan, or Finn, the name of Hawke's own dog.
- The score track "Kissing in the Rain" was later interpolated in the song "RoboCop" on Kanye West's 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak.
- The song "Breakable" by Fisher, the duo of television composer Ron Wasserman and Kathy Fisher, was popular on internet file-sharing sites, which helped the pair get signed to Interscope Records in 2000.
