Film

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

Name: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, TV Movie
Released: 1996
Cast: Alex Kingston, James Bowers, Geoffrey Beevers, Lucy Evans, Anthony Bessick

Period drama

A picaresque romp through 18th-century England and beyond, following Moll Flanders from prison birth through five marriages, countless lovers, and social extremes. Alex Kingston delivers a performance of genuine warmth and cunning in this three-hour adaptation that refuses to be merely literary—it's lusty, funny, and genuinely moving about survival and desire.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like long, picaresque period dramas where a sharp, unsentimental heroine talks her way through class and fortune, and where bawdy comedy sits comfortably beside real hardship.

Skip it if you want tight plotting or a quick watch, since this is a sprawling, leisurely adaptation of a very long novel that wanders from city streets to the colonies at its own pace.

What it asks of you: Settle in for nearly three and a half hours of episodic travel, with long stretches of talk, shifts in fortune, and a tone that moves easily between rough comedy and sober feeling.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Vanity Fair2004

Another adaptation of a classic novel about a sharp, ambitious woman navigating society through wit and calculated romance. Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp is equally shrewd and sympathetic, with period detail that crackles.

But It's sprawling and complicated, and some will find the heroine's ruthlessness exhausting rather than exhilarating.

Tom Jones1963

The ur-text of picaresque English comedy—a young man stumbling through fortunate accidents and misadventures with genuine warmth and bawdiness. Albert Finney's charm and the film's visual inventiveness make it endlessly rewatchable.

But The 1960s style and pacing feel distant now, and the gender dynamics, while better than the novel's, won't satisfy modern sensibilities.

Tipping the Velvet2002

A BBC miniseries about a young woman discovering desire, ambition, and self-invention in Victorian London. Gorgeously shot, sexually frank, and genuinely moving about reinvention and the cost of hiding who you are.

But It's slower than Moll and more emotionally introspective; if you want plot momentum, this asks patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Beckett2021

Both follow protagonists stumbling through circumstances beyond their control, accumulating experience and scars. Where Moll triumphs through charm and cunning, Beckett survives through sheer accident—but both are fundamentally about how you become who you are through what happens to you, not the reverse.

An American drifter in 1980s Greece stumbles through political chaos, violence, and moral compromise. The film's structure mirrors Moll's picaresque sprawl—a protagonist carried through events larger than themselves, learning nothing and everything at once.

But It's deliberately confusing and frustrating, shot in a deliberately ugly style; if you need narrative clarity and visual beauty, this will irritate you.

The Favourite2018

A woman's sexual power and strategic manipulation in a confined, high-stakes court. Emma Stone and Olivia Colman inhabit a world of schemes and genuine feeling with dark comedy and surprising tenderness.

But It's aggressively weird—visually distorted, tonally jarring—and the sexual content is explicit and sometimes uncomfortable.

Bridget Jones's Diary2001

A modern picaresque: a woman of ordinary charm navigates professional embarrassment, romantic confusion, and social awkwardness with genuine humor and surprising depth. Renée Zellweger is thoroughly likeable.

But It's much lighter and fluffier than Moll, and if you want substance beneath the comedy, you won't find much.

The Gilded Age2022

Julian Fellows' exploration of New Money versus Old Money in 1880s New York, with schemes and ambition driving every interaction. Beautifully produced and soapy in the best way, with genuine stakes beneath the costume drama.

But It's dialogue-heavy and moves slowly; the complexity can feel like work if you just want entertainment.

Dangerous Liaisons1988

A period story about manipulation, desire, and power played with style and intelligence. Glenn Close and John Malkovich are wickedly entertaining as aristocrats using seduction as weaponry.

But It's colder and more deliberately artificial than Moll; if you want genuine warmth, you'll find cynicism instead.

The Scandalous Lady W2015

A lesser-known period romp about a real 18th-century woman's affair and the legal battles that followed. Natalie Dormer is delightful, and the film has actual stakes alongside the sex and social climbing.

But It's slight and uneven; the ambitious parts work, but they sit awkwardly beside period-drama convention.

Schtonk!1992

Both are tales of elaborate deception in service of survival and ambition, built on the gap between what people desperately want to believe and what's actually true. Moll con-artists her way to security; the Hitler diary forgers exploit collective longing and national shame.

A German comedy about the forged Hitler diaries hoax—a brazen con that turns on deception, vanity, and the hunger for something to believe in. Wildly funny and structurally complex in its examination of how we're duped.

But It's in German, subtitled, and requires some knowledge of the historical event. The humor is acidic rather than warm.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire2019

Both are stories about women claiming agency in worlds built to constrain them. Where Moll does it through movement and accumulation—five husbands, multiple lovers, geographic range—the lady claims it through stillness and refusal. Both understand that desire and survival are entangled for women in ways the world finds threatening.

A painter and a reluctant bride-to-be fall into intimacy while the portrait sits between them. A film about desire, agency, and women's interior lives, shot with such luminous tenderness it becomes almost sacred.

But It's a quiet, dialogue-sparse meditation that prioritizes mood over plot. If you need narrative momentum, it will feel glacial.