When I got home from work last night, my daughter had a friend over, and they were watching Pride and Prejudice. This friend had come over last week to see the movie for the first time, and yesterday she just had to see it again.
I got home just as Mr. Bingley and his sister and Mr. Darcy were pulling away from Netherfield in their carriage. I sat down and watched to the end. I've said it before: There's something about this movie that makes a woman long for a man to look at her that way.
And now I'm half in love with Mr. Darcy, and so is my daughter, and so is her friend. The poor man has way too many women half in love with him, besides Miss Elizabeth, who is completely in love with him.
I don't know how long this will last, but I can't stop watching that movie.
Update:
My co-worker, who saw other versions of this movie and actually read the book, has told me that the newest one--the one I can't stop watching--was changed from the book to be more palatable to modern audiences (I think she may have told me this before, but it came in as a glancing blow and didn't stick long enough to sink in). In the book, it seems, Mr. Darcy really is rude, and Elizabeth doesn't dish it back at him the way she does in the movie.
So the people who didn't like this version because it didn't follow the book enough must be the sort of people who believe that rudeness should be rewarded with the guy getting the girl. Hmm.
Anyway, I love the way the movie has the interplay between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. I love everything about it, except the very end. In the last scene, director Joe Wright reveals the fact that he is, indeed, a man. I read somewhere that he knew he needed to have a kiss in the movie, so that's why he added that scene.
But, Joe, let me tell you (my daughter and her friend agree with me): We needed their first kiss, not their fiftieth.
3 comments:
Charlie,
That's what I've heard. I'm planning to rent it, if I can find it (and if I can find the courage to risk not liking the 2005 version as well anymore).
So now which movie am I supposed to see?
And SP, more than one rude, arrogant, and proud male heart has been changed forever by a good woman who is soft-spoken... and in my opinion every bit as unforgettable and un-ignorable as the ones with a biting wit.
By fiftieth kiss did you mean it was too passionate for the situation and time?
Chris,
Definitely start with 2005, because right now it's my absolute favorite.
"Biting" isn't the right word for her wit. She just gives his own words back to him on occasion. Quietly.
And no, the fiftieth wasn't too passionate. It was just anti-climactic. The first kiss is always the important one, but the director lost sight of that concept. So now we don't know if their first one happened right after the end of the previous scene, or at the wedding, or some other time. We just know that the kiss we see wasn't their first, and it's disappointing.
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