In Cinemas now!
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
An interesting modern take on Charles Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist. A young Oliver is always creative and “takes” his single mother on exotic journeys via his magnificent drawings. They spend a lot of time together in a local art gallery admiring works by the masters. However his mother soon passes away leaving Oliver as an orphan. He runs away from the church service to grow up as a street orphan, decorating buildings and walls with graffiti – though his are usually copies of the wonderful paintings he admired with his mother.
On the streets the now adult Oliver (Rafferty Law) is known as Twist – probably because of his amazing ability to “twist” out of trouble when escaping the constant pursuit by security guards and the police. His athletic ability is amazing as he runs, jumps and twists over walls and rooftops. He soon meets up with two other orphans – Dodge (Rita Ora) and Batesy (Franz Dramen) who introduce him to Fagin (Michael Caine) who takes in the homeless kids and trains them to steal artworks.
Fagin has his mind set on one particularly famous piece that mysteriously disappeared years before but turned up in a shonky art dealer’s gallery. Fagin is in cahoots with Sikes – played by Lena Headley who was Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, and she plays an equally sinister, manipulative and menacing role here!
There are some tense moments in this light-hearted drama as they try all sorts of tricks to take the artwork before it gets to the auction house when it would be gone forever. There was also the customary Twist at the end which I didn’t see coming.
I’m not sure about this movie – certainly nothing like the original Oliver set in Olde England, but it is still quite entertaining and worth a look if you like these quirky dramas.
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