Reed Lackey’s review published on Letterboxd:
I'd seen nearly every adaptation of Great Expectations except this one, which many consider to be not only the greatest adaptation of that story, but perhaps of any Dickens story. Please forgive the unavoidable pun, but my expectations for the film were indeed great, but I was not expecting it to impress and affect me as deeply as it did.
Lean's assured direction is at play from the very first frame, where the graveyard encounter becomes a truly haunting occurrence worthy of any Universal monster film. From there, the continued sense of hope and dread both build to points of tremendous impact. Lean brings out the best from all of his performers, particularly from Mills, who makes Pip seem fully alive with ambition and distress. One particularly standout performance for me was Francis L. Sullivan as the measured Mr. Jaggers, who knows from the very beginning the twists and surprises awaiting Mr. Pip, and endows every conversation with an underbelly of understanding and caution. Also don't miss a strikingly young and energetic Alec Guinness as Pip's friend Pocket. This is not to even mention the performances of Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt or Jean Simmons, who bring depths of emotional resonance at each extreme for their characters.
And I lack the understanding of filmcraft to adequately praise Lean's focus and skill at staging the scenes, crafting the script, and executing the direction. He receives necessary praise for his masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, but this film - made nearly twenty years earlier - shows all of the same talents and traits in full vigor on the smaller scale this film needed.
Essential for fans of Dickens, and for those who only know of the legacy of Dickens through A Christmas Carol or of David Lean through Lawrence of Arabia, it is an exciting and must-see surprise. Watched at home alone, following a viewing of Tale of Two Cities, during my "accidental" Dickens week.