Life in the early 1990’s for a young Bougainville girl is becoming complicated. With rebels fighting foreign owners of a copper mine and anyone thought to support them, Matilda's idyllic island home is in turmoil. The girl’s absent father works in Queensland, her mother is ready to join him when the next boat leaves, but it never does. So when the village’s remaining white man Mr Watts (Hugh Laurie) becomes an ad-hoc teacher for his small community, Matilda finds solace in his company and the book he reads to the class, Dickens’ Great Expectations.

In adapting a relatively small novel by NZ author Lloyd Jones, writer / director Andrew Adamson (Shrek) seeks to bring large ideas to the screen. With a wit and warmth that teams Mr Pip and Kim Morduant’s recent and similarly themed crowd-pleaser The Rocket, here is a story tackling loss, loneliness, fear and courage framed by a youngster caught up in the tragedy of a brutal civil war – one that doesn’t recognise the concerns of a mere girl. But as Watt wins over the children, then their dubious parents, Matilda sees a way forward.

Adamson presents Matilda's world in a vivid, compelling light that captures both attention and sympathy. As her thoughts dissolve into the book, Great Expectations leaps onto the screen in a Gauguin inspired hybrid of classical storytelling. It is infectious, as is newcomer Xzannjah’s forceful presence that gives Matilda a winning vitality that perfectly counterpoints Laurie’s troubled, thoughtful teacher. Binding the production is John Toon’s dramatic cinematography which captures Bougainville’s luminescent beauty, England’s shadowy gloom and the primary coloured otherworldliness from inside the novel itself.

Mr Pip's slavish approach to the magic of storytelling won't please all audiences. It doesn't help that the familiarity of the story, at 130 broad and occasionally uneven minutes, comes close to outstaying its welcome. Yet such is Xzannjah's bearing, and the persuasive nature of Matilda's journey that Mr Pip overcomes its weaknesses to present an uplifting discourse about identity, self-discovery and beating the odds.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Paramount Theatrette, Sydney, September 12, 2013