Movie log

[intertext]

Finally made it to see the new Pride and Prejudice. Keira Knightley was enchanting, but where was Colin Firth when we really needed him??? I'm sorry, but that actor was just too, too whimpy. The one scene when he comes swirling through the mist, you almost get it... then it turns into - him. Even if they couldn't have Colin F, couldn't they have found _someone_ worthy of Keira? And those last minutes... ugh. Not only unworthy of Jane, but unworthy of Deborah Moggach - can't help thinking some hack tossed them off on the plane over to the US, where they were apparently added. I mean, I'm all for a little clinch at the end (she says that he expresses himself as warmly as any young man in love would, and to me that can be interpreted as kissing), but that drivel... However. On the whole, it was a worthy effort. It's almost impossible to do Austen badly (though cf Mansfield Park for one example), and most of the other characters were more than acceptable. And Keira Knightley was wonderful.

Comments

[gillo]

I have heard of the infamous ending which they didn't dare show over here. I believe it's an extra on the DVD, which I haven't yet got. I thought it all got far too Bronte at times. And what the hell were they doing making Lady Catherine visit in the middle of the night??? Bizarre in the extreme.

I quite liked Matthew McFadyean, possibly because I adored him as Tom in Spooks/MI5, and hated Keira. I hated Donald Sutherland worse, mind you - absolutely nothing like Mr B IMO.

As for doing Austen badly, you can't have seen the extremely naff Northanger Abbey in which they made the Abbey into a real Gothic pile, complete with moat and creaking doors.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I liked MI5, too, and liked Matthew McFadyean in that, but I'm sorry, he just looked so pasty and miserable most of the time. He looked as if he had new contact lenses in, too. Yeah, the friend I saw it with and I were dumbfounded about the nocturnal visitation of Lady Catherine. I mean... huh??? But I thought Judi Dench was marvellous. She always is, but she was so particularly odious in this, even better than Edith Evans. I didn't mind Donald Sutherland, though his accent slipped sometimes. I didn't think Wickham was slimy enough, or Mr. Collins quite obsequious enough. I keep going back to that BBC production with Colin Firth - dream casting, really, though I didn't like whatsername Ehl who played Elizabeth - she wasn't lively enough and seemed rather old, I thought. I liked Elizabeth Garvey from the _first_ BBC production... But I really did like Kiera Knightley.

[gillo]

Ugh. LJ just swallowed a long reply.

Judi Dench is always magic. I've seen her live on stage several times - wonderful beyond measure. Her Cleopatra was breathtaking.

I wasn' crazy about Jennifer Ehle - I felt she simpered where Keira pouted, and I don't love either. The costumes did not flatter KK much, I thought.

CF was good but, to be fair, had a lot more time to make his mark. MM didn't look too comfortable in all the Wuthering around.

I found a lot of the details irritating in the latest film - costumes racketing about across a ten-year span, Lady C arriving at midnight, Mrs B chasing pigs inside the house, Mr B looking so scruffy...