The film makes a fair attempt at converting the story for the present-day with good music and character traits that make sense but overall lack substance. While Twist is an entertaining watch, one thing I thought was severely lacking was any emotional depth, the film is more focused on being family-friendly than other tellings of the story and as such there are no deaths or overly depressing moments which I think makes the film quite one-note. Michael Caine as Fagin is about what you would expect, though personally, I didn’t like the decision to make his motivation for the heist revenge, I would have preferred it if he was simply fuelled by greed and the desire to escape any debts he may have. Rita Ora is fine as Dodge pulling off some of the charms the Artful Dodger is known for, but completely lacks any of the charisma. Headey does a good job and comes across as menacing and manipulative, though I feel she lacked some of Bill Sikes’s unpredictable rage. Nancy who has been reimagined as Red in Twist has been aged down, becoming Oliver’s romantic love interest in the film instead of a young boy’s crush as she is in the musical Oliver! Changes were also made to Dodge and Sikes, who were both gender-swapped for this version of the story, played by Rita Ora and Lena Headey respectively. The free-running skills shown by Rafferty Law (yes, Law as in Jude Law) as Oliver and Nancy, aka Red, played by Sophie Simnett are impressive, creative, and highly entertaining, which should come as little surprise as all the parkour was coordinated by Australian free-runner Dominic Di Tommasso.

Through this chance meeting, Oliver gets pulled into a revenge plot, art heist, and blossoming romance.Ĭompared to the novel, which is driven by drama and tragedy, Twist is more action-based, with the plots and heists becoming the focus of the narrative rather than the characters themselves. In fact, it is while he’s escaping some police officers that he bumps into the Dodge and Batesy who quickly introduce him to Fagin. Unlike the sweet Oliver in Dickens’s novel who is quite naive and doesn’t know how to survive on his own, Twist’s Oliver is full of street smarts and a talented graffiti artist and free runner, frequently using his abilities to outrun the law. Set in present-day London, Twist follows the story of Oliver Twist who has been living on the streets since his mother’s death a few years prior. Sky’s 2021 film Twist is a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’s classic novel. Some adaptations try to be as faithful as possible to Dickens’s novel, while others draw inspiration from his concept or characters to create something new and original.īut which adaptations are the best? Twist-2021 Oliver Twist is probably Charles Dickens’s most well-known work, as such, it has been adapted numerous times over the years in various mediums.

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