Pride and Prejudice

[nycmermaid]

I saw the most recent Pride and Prejudice last night. It was my first-ever Jane Austen experience (not counting Clueless and Bridget Jones' Diary). I bought the book in London years ago and I didn't get very far with it. All the prim-and-proper Englishness and the whole "society" thing just didn't hold my interest. So I figured maybe I'd be better off just watching the movie. Everyone tells me the Colin Firth version is the one I should see, and I do want to see it because how can you not love him?. But my mom rented the new one and so I watched it with her and my dad last night.

After the first 15 minutes my mother congratulated me on not having already walked away. I completely understood. A bunch of girls giggling about the new man in town and pleading with daddy to meet him was pretty darned annoying. Especially when one of them is Jena Malone. (And can I just say, again, what the hell is it with Jena Malone ALWAYS playing the little tart? So this time it was with a British accent. What range she has. :p) But I stuck with it because I was beginning to see the appeal of this story. Elizabeth is smart, spunky and before her time with her lack of boy-craziness and her reluctance to marry. I saw a lot of myself in her. Sometimes it's easier to look at all the guys out there and not be impressed by any of them because you feel like you're better than all that. But at the same time it's a defense mechanism against getting hurt. And Mr. Darcy is the same. Elizabeth and Darcy are stubborn and willful, and those couples are always the most compelling, aren't they? The old Han Solo/Princess Leia thing. You hate each other because you love each other. It's passion and it's what we all want.

I do see why people said Keira Knightley was too pretty for this role. If Elizabeth had been less than stunning, it would have been more poignant. And without even having seen Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, I could envisage him over the other actor the whole time, and it made me want to see him even more. But I like KK and thought she did the role justice.

So I'm not exactly a Jane Austen convert, but I still thought it was a decent movie. I loved the scenery and all the big huge trees that probably don't really exist in England anymore. But I'm glad I don't live in that time. If you weren't lucky like Elizabeth and didn't find your perfect match in a wealthy man like Mr. Darcy, you were pretty much Teh Screwed!

Comments

[abbagirl.livejournal.com]

You totally need to rent "Sense and Sensibility" asap, best Jane Austen movie evah!!! :) Although "Persuasion" and "Mansfield Park" are pretty good too...

[webmd.livejournal.com]

Not that you're biased... ;)

[abbagirl.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh, of COURSE not! ;)

[zalem.livejournal.com]

Boo on you for not liking the Pride & Prejudice novel! Boo! Hiss!

Don't mind me...I'm a very ardent Jane Austen fan. :) I have the newest P&P movie, but am not overly impressed with it. The A&E mini-series with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is way better. Like I (and many others) have said, Keira is too pretty for the role. And overall I find her portrayal of Lizzy off. Jennifer does a much better job imho. Not that I don't normally like Keira, I do, I just don't think she is suited for this role.

But the mini-series is rather long...not sure if you'll have the patience to sit through it if this kind of stuff is not your thing. I do own it though if you want to borrow it.

[webmd.livejournal.com]

I actually do want to see it! albauk owns it too, I think, but if I can't get it from her I may hit you up.

[abitunlikely.livejournal.com]

I think my sis actually even just got it on dvd!

[abitunlikely.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you about the novel and KK. I wrote a bit of a diatribe against her after I saw it, but I can't go looking for it right now. :)

Ah, the mini-series...

[cynima.livejournal.com]

My dad is still saying "I could see Keira Knightley daily" because he loved her so much in P&P. HA HA! Between KK & Catherine Zeta Jones, my dad seems to have a thing for UK beauties with dark hair. However, my cousin Becky despises KK and thinks she's an insult to the entire profession of acting.

I agree that it would have been more effective for the actress in the Lizzy role not to be as pretty as KK was. However, in KK's defense (and because I have no Jane Austen attachments to make me feel offended by the casting of KK in that role) I think that because she was attractive, it did give her the extra leeway to not marry the first guy to come along.

I actually thought the most poignantly rendered romantic plot in the film was with Lizzy's homely friend. Here was a woman who really didn't have many choices in suitors and really did have to take the first man to show interest because otherwise she would be at the mercy of relatives or some dowager aunt, or else be out on the street or working as someone's maid to make a living.

It's funny because I recently saw that actress, who got my attention because she is so unconventional looking and quirky, on some Masterpiece Theater period drama that also revolved around woman needing to get married to secure their lifestyles, and in that one, she was a platinum blonde, and playing this very demanding, high maintenance woman engaged to a cute guy who was completely bewildered by her and didn't want to marry her but somehow got trapped into that engagement. What struck me most about that show was that even though it wasn't necessarily a flattering type of character to play, it just goes to show that in the UK, women who are unconventional looking, that would get absolutely nowhere in American television and film because their look is so offbeat, get to have major and very important leading lady roles in UK productions. Yet another reason it would be better to live over there, heh.

[webmd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I see what you mean about the homely friend marrying Lizzy's cousin. What would have made Elizabeth miserable made her friend happy. That worked out nicely.

Yet another reason it would be better to live over there, heh.

So when are we moving? Heh.

[cynima.livejournal.com]

You can move there now, marry Nathan, get to stay in the country legally. Then, you will find men for me and Shosh, and we will go over there and marry them, and then we can all live there together!!!

Great plan, right?

[webmd.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan; I'll let you know when Nathan proposes. :p

[cynima.livejournal.com]

It's 2006, why don't you propose to him?

Heh. Only halfway kidding.

[webmd.livejournal.com]

Call me traditional, but I hope to never have to propose to a guy. I have already offered Nathan a job as my house boy, though.

[osito71.livejournal.com]

Kiera Knightly is stunning?

She always looks awful unimpressive to me.

[webmd.livejournal.com]

Well to each his own, but some magazine just rated her the most beautiful person in the world.

[osito71.livejournal.com]

Blech.

[cynima.livejournal.com]

Really? I thought that was Angelina Jolie (who I am so totally sick of by the way. I saw a picture of her and her mouth was so huge it really pissed me off.)