Moll Flanders (1996)

REVIEW
Daniel Defoe's classic novel has been dumbed-down so that every man, woman, child or frog in the audience can understand it. Badly paced, this updating awkwardly stumbles around the story of an orphaned young woman doing her best to survive in 18th-century London. Potentially potent material is pureed into an insipid source for cheers of "You go, girl" from the Oprah crowd. Director Densham complained that summer audiences passed over his costume drama in favor of loud, special effects-laden action films. The sad truth is, a popcorn-muncher like Mission: Impossible has more to say about an innocent trying to survive in a corrupt, cynical world than this "important" film. Freeman and Wright give their best to undeserving material.