Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s Stopped-Clock Movie Reviews

This week, only 13 years late: BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth!

As many of you know, I first saw this a few weeks ago. There’s nothing like some good MST3K time with my beloved sisters. But, I have to admit, I came out of it pretty meh. I am not the adoring fan that I know so many of you are. 🙂 I can see why you love it! I can see it as a good intro to Austen. And I didn’t hate it. But it wasn’t enough to sway my persnickety self from the 1980 version, and, so much better than both, the book itself. Deep thoughts:

• It’s pretty close to the book, lots of word for word, even if they did leave out some of my favorite lines. Though the post-Lydia-eloping part gets really compacted in this version. Seems like all the characters do is get in and out of carriages.
• I actually liked the scene-setting parts that aren’t in the book—showing the countryside and town and all. You get a better sense of their world.
• Plus I liked Jennifer Ehle better than I thought I would! I thought she would be too sappy; she was not too sappy. Check.
• You want to talk Colin Firth? OK, let’s talk Colin Firth. Sure, he’s tall and cute, but he’s wooden. (Ha ha, get your minds out of the ha-ha, kids!) By which I mean he stares at Lizzie in a frankly creepy way for 3/4 of the movie. I’m spoiled by already having seen him in A Single Man and The King’s Speech, and I say he could tear the part up now 10 times better than he did it then. (Apart from being too old, and what do we think of Helena Bonham-Carter as Lizzie? . . . OK, back to 1995.)
• Let’s talk more Colin Firth! Why do we call it “the Colin Firth version?” Is fans’ love of this version simply based on the Firthy Goodness (thank you, Miss Osborne)? Is it because we’re not sure how to say “Ehle”? (AY-lee, I think.) I’m curious. Because she is after all the star, though this version does try to bring him closer to stardom than Jane put him, by showing us his Inner Feelings, and his butt, and his famous wet shirt. Thoughts?
• Jane Bennet is all wrong. No one thinks she’s prettier than Lizzie. (And she has a thick neck.)
• It was kind of amusing at first, but it grated on me more and more that all the supporting characters were seriously exaggerated from the book. Any complexity in them was left out, and they were all completely one-dimensional. It makes them more fun to laugh at and all, but it does hurt the story. I mean, who would really believe Miss Bingley was their friend? She’s totally scary! And Mrs. Bennet always shrieking flattens the drama and believability of her crazy mood swings. Etc.

So, as I said, some mixed feelings. However, at least I now know what all you crazy kids mean when you say “No one wants your concertos here!” and “Lord, I’m so fat!” And that is a comfort.

Reading Jane Austen with my Mom

I know Mother’s Day was three whole days ago. My mom and I spent the day together—in Idaho, in fact—until I got on a plane and she and my dad hopped in the car and started driving to California. But it seems that 2012 is the Year of Mom and Jane Austen, and so here we are. It’s Wednesday, but hey, I can still talk about my mom.

I mentioned it briefly during the read-along, but my mother read Mansfield Park along with the rest of the Austen Nation. (She even commented semi-anonymously, like the ninja she is, on one of our read-along posts! Can you spot the rogue parent?) It was her first time—not just her first time reading The Chronicles of Fanny and her Ha-Ha, but her first time reading Austen, period. Shortly afterwards, she joined my Beloved Sisters and me for the second half of Pride and Prejudice and immediately absconded with Miss Osborne’s DVDs, which were apparently better than the identical set that lived on her daughter’s bookshelf from late 2009 through the middle of 2011.

People, I think we have a new member of the cult. I mean, family.

According to mom, that Henry Crawford wasn’t such a bad guy until the whole wife-stealing thing. That was unexpected, but anyway, Maria and Julia weren’t very nice anyway. But before that, why was she so set against him? HE WAS NICE. And why do they call this a romance, again?

Also, Mrs. Bennet is hilarious and having to choose between never speaking to her mother again and never speaking to her father again is great. But is Jane supposed to be prettier than Lizzy? Because that woman looks like a man. And wait, what actor is that? Oh, right, Colin Firth. I liked him in The King’s Speech.

Rumor has it she might pick up Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice (the novel) (though I keep trying to press the Keira Knightley movie on her, for Colin Firth/Matthew McFadyen comparison purposes) next. I promise to stand supportively by, books in hand. Happy reading, Mom!

 

 

Pass the hot glue gun

Not to belabor the whole “our handsome and classy genre hero won an Oscar” point, but…

…I love a man who celebrates victory with an undergarment-themed craft project.

Jane Austen Fight Club: Mr. Darcy vs. King George VI

Come one, come all, to the Jane Austen Fight Club, where the very best from Jane’s world and the very best from everywhere else match wits and fists for all to see! The prizes: pride, honor, and the adoration of Jane fans everywhere, or a “The first rule of fight club is, we don’t talk about Mr. Darcy” t-shirt and possibly some Regency-era medical care for all your combat-induced wound-care needs!

Today’s contestants:

Fitzwilliam “King of Hearts” Darcy, kind-hearted curmudgeon and romantic hero extraordinaire, and “Actual” King George VI, recovering stammerer and…well, king! One rules the Austen-industrial complex and the other just rules, and today, only one will walk away with his face and his reputation intact!

In their corners:

Mr. Darcy is loyal, devoted, and puts his money where his mouth is. He’s romantic. He likes the low-maintenance type and recognizes the virtues of a pair of fine eyes and a dirty hem. He’s nice to his baby sister and takes care of his goofy best friend, for better or worse, and he keeps a sweet bachelor pad. And let’s not forget the way he takes those afternoon swims!

George VI is, um, an actual crown-wearing, scepter-carrying monarch? He takes care of royal business, including a little kerfuffle called World War II, when his weenie brother gives up the throne for a girl. He’s a looker and he gets to wear those fancy military outfits, being both Commander-in-Chief and an actual Great War sailor. And he might finally get Colin Firth that Oscar, which surely nets him a point or two?

Handicaps:

Darcy, while handsome and devoted, can be—how do we put this?—a bit…awkward. With some people. Like, maybe all of them? He doesn’t keep his voice down when he’s saying something rude; he doesn’t dance at parties when he knows there are ladies without partners; he makes proposals that sound an awful lot like “I must be a moron, but let’s get married!” Charming.

George—don’t suppose they’d let us call him Bertie—is, it turns out, kind of a mess. There’s the speech issue, of course, but then also an entire early life of being picked last for probably everything (knee braces, forced right-handedness, chronic stomach problems, and a reputation for being “easily frightened and prone to tears”), plus major moves towards the dissolution of the British Empire under his reign. Whoops?

Decision:

Darcy. He may not be literally royal, but he reigns in our hearts…and he doesn’t come with an awesome wife played by a surprisingly normal Helena Bonham Carter. I think that means a lot to all of us.