Moll Flanders | 
| Director: Pen Densham
Actors: Robin Wright Penn, Morgan Freeman, Stockard Channing, John Lynch, Brenda Fricker
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.72
You Save: $6.26 (63%)
New (54) Used (38) Collectible (1) from $2.67
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 9555
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 122 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: MGMD1001457D
ISBN: 0792848217
UPC: 027616857774
EAN: 9780792848219
ASIN: B000053VB3
Theatrical Release Date: June 14, 1996
Release Date: January 9, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF ONE WOMAN'S UNBREAKABLE SPIRIT.
Amazon.com
Robin Wright gives an adolescent, one-note performance as Daniel Defoe's 18th-century heroine, who has successive experiences as an abandoned child, a prostitute, a wife (five times over!), a thief, an artist's model, a felon, and much else. Writer-director Pen Densham takes a Forrest Gump-like sentimental angle on Moll's many manifestations (quite a bit different from Terence Young's bawdy 1965 film version) and mostly succeeds in making a movie that is too silly, precious, and weepy. Morgan Freeman plays a narrator (who doesn't exist in the book), and there are some good performances from John Lynch, Stockard Channing, and Jeremy Brett. But by the time this wobbly adaptation reaches its sappy conclusion, one can't help but feel the overriding power of the film is to insult the intelligence with treacle. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Solid compelling enjoyable April 13, 2009
Eric E. Weinraub (Issaquah, Washington United States)
I don't often watch was is an undoubtedly a feminist film. I found the story sad yet i could not look away. Morgan Freeman is a wonderful actor and portrays his character in a most sympathetic way. I can see myself watching this again in the future.
 Closer to a Female Oliver Twist than to Defoe's Book March 30, 2009
Mark J. Fowler (Okinawa, Japan)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was about halfway through Pen Densham's "Moll Flanders" when I realized the film I was watching was closer to a variation of Dicken's Oliver Twist with a female "Oliver" than to a story based on Daniel Dafoe's novel.
I decided to try to enjoy the film on its own merit, and I didn't hate it. Faint praise, I know, but I like period costume dramas with great production values and skilled performers, so I was mentally comparing this film to productions such as the recent series of Jane Austin based works, and this does not compare well to Emma, Pride and Prejudice -(A&E, 1996) and Sense & Sensibility (Special Edition).
Moll has an Oliver-like pauper's birth, delivered by a woman who is saved from the gallows only for the duration of her pregnancy and hanged a few hours later. Instead of a pitiless Dickens orphanage, Moll grows up in a nunnery where she is fondled by priests, and beaten by nuns after attacking a priest who gropes Moll in confession. Tossed into the cruel streets Moll is taken in by a female Fagin stand-in, Mrs. Allworthy, proprietress of a bordello which counts politicians and clergy amongst its clientele.
Moll is portrayed by Robin Wright, and there's more of Forrest Gump's Jenny in her performance than in her portrayal of Princess Buttercup. Moll is more than the cliched prostitute with a heart of gold. She tries to maintain some degree of personal integrity and justice, and she's the kind of woman who will take a beating to protect a friend.
Mrs. Allworthy is portrayed by Stockard Channing, and she makes the character a believable upper crust madam, able to move amongst the politically mighty, but also knowing why men visit her establishment.
Moll is given food and shelter, but she sinks lower in self esteem in her work. Arriving at the house a virgin, Mrs. Allworthy auctions Moll's virtue for a small fortune. Not long after a man arrives wanting to buy time with the least expensive woman available. Mrs. Allworthy charges half a crown for Moll, then chides them both, doubting that Moll will give the man his money's worth.
The man is a painter, played by John Lynch, and he wants a real live woman not for sex, but to paint and learn more about anatomy. This begins a new era in Moll's life.
Until the Hollywood ending, the entire movie is told in Forrest Gump-like flashbacks, with Morgan Freeman reading to Moll's nine-year old daughter, played by Aisling Corcoran, from Moll's personal journal. Freeman carries a degree of authority and respect to the proceedings as Mr. Hibble. Moll initially meets Hibble where he is working for Mrs. Allworthy, and she gains his trust and devotion when she discovers him in an indelicate moment and takes punishment herself rather than betray his secret.
This film may have been more. But I was pretty satisfied with it as is.
 Love this story March 17, 2009
A. Carnes (Puyallup, WA, USA)
I saw this movie on tv one night not even from the beginning and the story in it was so moving that I had to buy it to finish it. It was like reading a good book. I don't usually watch a lot of tv but the few times I do, I saw this and was glad I did. Plus has great actors in it!
A great classic brought to the screen May 24, 2008
Jeanne (Northwest Wisconsin, USA)
This is one of my favorite period stories and the acting/actors did a superb job of bringing the characters to life in this adaptation of the classic novel. If you love this type of period story as much as I do, you will not be disappointed with this film. The plot is twisty and dramatic and the ending is grand. It is one of my all time favorites.
Loved it. September 10, 2007
LINDA (NEW YORK)
The CD is true to the movie soundtrack. All selections were great listening.
I am glad Amazon still offers these older soundtracks.
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