This story is told entirely in flashback, as Hibble reads to Moll’s daughter, Flora, from Moll's journal of her life story. Flora was separated from her mother during a period of crisis, and Hibble has spent many years tracking her down. Unlike many stories that begin at their ends, this one still manages to preserve a surprise, but the plot isn’t the point; this is a movie about atmosphere, personality and character.
Robin Wright never bends as Moll Flanders; you can never catch her trying to sweeten or smooth the edges of the character. Even lines like “I was the sparrow of hope, looking for a nest” are said not for poetic effect, but as simple reportage. The movie doesn’t sentimentalize its time. London is brutal for a young woman without means or protection, and Moll understands that and deals with it. There is even a certain sympathy in the movie's treatment of Mrs. Allworthy, a hard businesswoman but a realist: Unattached, unsupported, uneducated and attractive women in London 250 years ago had few options, and the one offered by Mrs. Allworthy pays the best, and offers less chance of an early death.
Freeman's character is intriguing. Who exactly is Hibble, and where does he come from? The West Indies, probably. His relationship with Mrs. Allworthy seems part servant, part confidante; his solicitude for Moll Flanders is touching, even if a little too kind to be supported by the times.
The Artist (he is never named) is played by Lynch as a fierce, sad young man who drives himself to a higher standard than he can achieve, and is inspired by Moll's own defiant standards. The movie’s most amusing scene comes when the Artist proposes marriage, Moll insists on meeting his family, and they drive down to a vast country estate. A friendly man comes running up to greet their carriage. “Is that your father?” asks Moll. “You're not going to get off that easy,” the Artist says, as the man opens the gate and doffs his cap.
“Moll Flanders” is not a sunny reconstruction of an idealized past, like “Sense and Sensibility.” It's closer in historical detail to “Restoration” (both movies show the population devastated by plagues). As a story, it's an original; Densham took only the name, the period, and a few notions from Defoe, and has made up the rest. Moll in many ways resembles Jenny, the character she played in “Forrest Gump." Both stand aside from their societies, associate with outcasts and rebels, and do not confuse sexuality with romanticism. The film’s melodramatic ending sorts everything out in the approved style of the genre, but the movie is really better than that, a portrait of a woman who endures, thinks, and survives.
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