Pride and Prejudice
May. 5th, 2006 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nycmermaidI 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!
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!
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Date: 2006-05-05 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-05 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-06 02:02 pm (UTC)