One of the glummest recent attempts to drag a classic story into the 21st century.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 3, 2004

The only thing funny about Twist is how seriously it takes its own pompous preposterousness.

| Original Score: D | Aug 5, 2004

The movie's far too stagy and pretentious.

| Jul 30, 2004

Cuaron ran into trouble by being overly faithful to Dickens' story, changing almost nothing except the setting.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 23, 2004

Apart from the somewhat novel conceit of turning Dickens into the stuff of a Gus Van Sant picture (see My Own Private Idaho), there's nothing original, nor compelling, about Twist.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 8, 2004

Ultimately more unsavory than enlightening, and would have benefited from a more humorous approach to its purloined themes.

Full Review | Jun 22, 2004

Not much happens in Twist, apart from a dismal series of personal degradations, each more depressing than the last.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2004

Stahl is definitely one to watch closely -- he's the real deal. But the emerging plot isn't.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 4, 2004

Decidedly dark but consistently engaging.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 3, 2004

If he's listening, old Charlie Dickens must surely be yelling 'Liven it up, lads!' from the grave.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2004

Twist tries to be creative and profound, but I think it fails miserably.

| May 24, 2004

More tedious than affecting, the film feels like an excuse for reproducing more of the kind of kinky imagery notoriously employed by fashion photographer Steven Meisel in his creepy pedophile advertisements for Calvin Klein.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 21, 2004

Despite some strong performances, the movie never really makes a case for its own existence.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 21, 2004

If there is anything to be gained from tugging Oliver Twist from early industrial London to contemporary Toronto, it is not evident in this small, bland Canadian film.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 20, 2004

Although faithful to the social-reformist urgency at the heart of Charles Dickens' writing, Twist translates the novel's mixture of evil and poignancy into a valid theme for today's hard-boiled audiences.

| May 20, 2004

You know things are bad when the most interesting character, the menacing brute Bill Sykes, is never heard or seen on-screen.

| May 18, 2004