when i walk in and i wonder why the theatre be empty . i want to like this movie . hey and gary farmer a funny guy . i hop to see something balance and lifelike and with ups and down . instead what i saw be a scared straight style and here how bad it can get cliché without any relief and either humorous or realistic . i be suppose to get take in by the comparison of this movie to dicken story . except it be nothing like dicken story and except for the name and the squalor . the victorian gentleman have a handle on reality while this paternalistic and uninspired film want to paint everything outside the mainstream worldview a endlessly fear driven and hopeless . it a if the writer want to u to think that dickens be a pollyanna and want u to know how bad thing really be . do such awful thing actually happen . for sure . do all of these thing happen to real people in the real world . no . which make twist a horror film if that what youre after . maybe someone want kid to know what they might face if they run away from abusive home to the big city . in that case and they should have find out what kid face verisimiltude anyone . instead of throw together an orgy of dark imagination .