This story, we were told at the end of Nobody's Fault and are told again at the start of its sequel, "must now be seen through Little Dorrit's eyes." (It had been seen up to that point through Arthur Clennam's.) But the heart sinks a little on finding out that the version of events "through Little Dorrit's eyes" is going to back up all the way to before her birth (though we don't literally view those events from within the womb), and it continues to sink throughout the almost full hour taken to catch up to the starting point of Part I. Notwithstanding the extension of the time-line in that lengthy prelude plus a not-so-lengthy postlude, Part II is predominantly fill-in: additional information, clarification, elaboration. None of this does anything to persuade us that, from a strictly narrative angle, Dorrit's point of view is nearly as advantageous as Clennam's: the very gaps and obscurities of Part I had added a beneficial measure of mystery. It's nice, of course, to have any such mystery eventually cleared up, but we don't want a Dr. Gideon Fell or Inspector Appleby, once he has gathered the suspects in the drawing room for just that purpose, to rattle on at a length equal to the entire story up till then. And we are surely within our rights in a six-hour movie to resent out-and-out repetitions of scenes, with no real gain from an alternative point of view. Still, Part II does have the attraction of Eleanor Bron as Mrs. Merdle, which Part I didn't, and precious more of Miriam Margoyles as Flora Finching. Derek Jacobi, Sarah Pickering, Alec Guinness; directed by Christine Edzard. (1988) — Duncan Shepherd
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