One of my most indelible movie memories from childhood was watching little Mark Lester pathetically mew for another bowl of gruel in Carol Reed's 1968 musical masterpiece “Oliver,” and I imagine I'm not alone.

There's something about hunger that's terrifying to a child; perverse, even. Arguably, the story's real villain is an empty stomach.

Roman Polanski (“The Piano”) vividly depicts the miseries of a half-starved orphan's life in “Oliver Twist,” but it's hard to imagine his version of the Charles Dickens classic enjoying the same robust embrace as past efforts (including David Lean's superb 1948 film with Alec Guinness).

Clocking in at more than two hours, the movie is numbingly tedious in spots, and Polanski's dreary, mud-strewn sets — while authentic-looking — have a way of smothering his actors. Certainly, this is not an “Oliver Twist” that will mobilize a new generation of movie fans.

If anything, Polanski reminds us that 19th-century Britain was a society sorely lacking in kindness and compassion (as was postwar Los Angeles in the director's “Chinatown”). After committing the grievous sin of asking his orphanage slop-master for more food, Oliver (Barney Clark, cute if vacant) is passed from one exploitative predicament to another, until he finally gets fed up and runs away to London, where he falls under the wing of the half-mad fence Fagin (Ben Kingsley) and his motley entourage of child pickpockets.

Teen actor Harry Eden (“Peter Pan”) is a disappointment as the wily Artful Dodger — the kid proves more adept at stealing handkerchiefs than scenes — and Polanski seems to neglect his actors at times (for instance, forgetting to remind Clark to flinch when bullet squibs explode around him during the movie's climactic rooftop scene). The movie leaves us wanting for more performances like the one delivered by Kingsley; he's brilliant and unrecognizable as the decrepit Fagin, doting over the “fine fellows” stuffed in his secret jewel box.

Is it sacrilegious to suggest that “Twist” has enjoyed too much attention from filmmakers? His is a wonderful story, but Oliver himself is not one of Dickens' best characters. Per tradition, he's rescued by a wealthy benefactor (Edward Hardwicke), becomes the pawn of evil men, but never really plays an active role in his own salvation. He is what he is: A nice kid who knows a sweet deal when he sees it.

GRADE: C