In a rotting Palm Beach mansion, a young man (Ethan Hawke) and a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) clasp hands, gaze at each other with deep meaning, and dance. It is the destiny of this particular young couple to...what? To fall in love? Let's just say it's their destiny to be...destined. Great Expectations is proof that if you repackage the classics (in this case, Dickens) for the youth market in an era of MTV dislocation, what you get, in essence, is postmodern Cliffs Notes with an alt-rock soundtrack. Hawke should avoid playing any more tormented bohemian saints. He just seems a pretty boy pining for street cred. D+


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