Elijah Wood
Performer for Our Time
Oliver Twist
(1997)
EJW's Performance
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Elijah Wood Performer for Our Time Oliver Twist EJW's Performance |
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Oliver Twist (1997) |
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Edward C. Patterson, site owner |
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The role of Jack Dawkins (The Artful Dodger) in Oliver Twist (1997) was Elijah Wood’s first adult characterization; although the Dodger is a teenager in the Novel—Elijah chose to create a full-blown adult interpretation. Unlike the two other literary characters that he inhabits (Huckleberry Finn in Huck Finn and Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Elijah Wood manages to significantly change the original Dickens character. His focused performance undercuts the top billed star, Richard Dreyfus as Fagin (who also is the executive producer) and overturn the title character, played by Alex Trench. In fact, in this film that only approximates Dickens, Elijah Wood’s performance is the only reason for viewing it. Until Elijah Wood makes his entrance in the London market, the film is DOA. "No you don’t," Dodger says. "Better come with me young lad. Stealin’s an art. I don’t ‘old with amateurs muckin’ up the business . . . What’s your name, me flash companion?" Elijah chooses a cockney accent—but not a real one. Rather, he applies a stage one. His audience is the Disney crowd huddled around a TV set, so he’s not going to "muck up the business" with the genuine article. Elijah has been criticized for this. But, in the overall tone of things, being able to understand him and know he’s initially creating a Dickens caricature, more like Mr. Jingles (Pickwick Papers) or Dick Swiveler (Old Curiosity Shop), makes the accent a valid application. Elijah immediately takes over the center of the film, splashes a likeable rogue before us, with shifty eyes, buoyed up with his famous gap toothed smile. He swaggers when he walks and there is no question that Dodger is the mentor of many. Elijah fades into the woodwork for a few scenes, emerging again in the park where he orchestrates a pickpocketing scheme. It’s meant to be layered humor, but allows Dodger to continue to warm up to Oliver. It also gives Elijah Wood the opportunity to turn his comedic rogue into a swaggering snob—a social statement, where the downtrodden young man looks down on the upper crust. He also warns Oliver that "A friend is just an enemy in disguise. You can’t trust nobody." It is on that bit of cynicism Elijah Wood starts to arc the character. It amazes this reviewer that Wood has a penchant to disallow a boring performance. The Dodger is an interesting character at best. But Elijah Wood begins to inhabit him with intelligence, moving him from happy gargoyle to man-of-the-world cynicism. The fact that the Dodger is warning Oliver about himself is more apparent in the performance than in the source material. Just before Oliver undertakes his first pickpocketing gig, Elijah Wood gets to further ennoble the Artful Dodger by telling him if he’s caught he’ll "matriculate to one of the finest institutions of ‘igher learning in the country." Where, of course, one can learn from the best. During the job and after, Elijah changes to a worried brother figure. He defends Oliver—"He won’t peach. I know him." Elijah Wood brings his agony face into play when threatened by Bill Sikes. Their antagonism is needed (not present in the novel) to help the Dodger both betray and save Oliver. The pivotal moment in the character’s arc comes when he refuses to use the kidnap bag when Bill Sikes ambushes Oliver. The Dodger grows a heart. He sees himself in Oliver and recognizes there is a chance for someone else—a flash of selflessness (me flash companion). In a tender scene, the Dodger advises Oliver to run away if he gets a chance. Elijah Wood portrays the Dodger here as someone who longs for the good life, but feels he’s too far gone for it to "be ‘is cup o’ tea." He also tells Oliver that the pickpocket game "was not a game. We only thought it was." But, in the next scene he agrees to spy on Nancy for a price. The presiding sentiment that Elijah Wood brings out does not quite work being contradictory (I guess it works on a Disney-script level—but Elijah is NOT a Disney actor). But the betrayal of Nancy does help the conflict that results with Dodger accepting the half-guinea in payment. As Elijah Wood holds the half-guinea in his hand (the Judas payment), he stares at it as he did in The War (at his father’s medal) and later in The Fellowship of the Ring (Frodo Baggins holding the ring on the banks of the Anduin). It is an effective facial pose and, in that moment, the Dodger reaches full human proportions. The denouement in the film is greatly altered from the book to include the Dodger in the logistics. It does not really work. Elijah Wood has little script to work with and his saving of Fagin moment jars any aficionado of Dickens, making the performance, at that point, immaterial. For his duplicity, Dodger is caught and dragged away to prison. But, he’s not remorseful. He reverts into his comic caricature at the end babbling Dickensian platitudes on matriculating to institutions of ‘igher learning to be a credit to me profession—a pretty flat ending to an otherwise intelligent performance. It is a credit to Elijah Wood that he took a character that is more caricature than beef (even in the novel) and breathed life into it—admirably. This is not his best performance. But he can’t be faulted for trying. He earns his salt and his second billing. Since the other actors do little or nothing to give their roles a journey (relying on some mystical Mr. Dickens to mail-in the miracle), Elijah Wood steals the film. The Dodger is the only memorable performance here—flamboyant, focused and scene saving (stealing), quite the opposite of his other major film effort for 1997—The Ice Storm, where he creeps us out as the sexually confused Mikey Carver and turns in one of his most superior performances. |