Lost in Austen

So, once I read the synopsis, I just had to see this movie. I should just go ahead and summarize the plot of this movie: A 21st century feminist, Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper), finds Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arteron) in her bathroom after a unromantic proposal from a flaky boyfriend. She then discovers that a secret door in her bathroom leads directly to Longbourn, which for those who don’t know is the household of the Bennet family from the Jane Austen novel Pride & Prejudice. She then unwillingly trades places with Elizabeth and begins to pose as Elizabeth’s friend while she interacts with the characters of the novel. Shortly thereafter does she discover that her actions are beginning to cause seriousl alterations of the classic beloved novel.

Now I think it‘s a little more obvious why I had to see this movie. It sounded so far-fetched I couldn’t wait to see and most likely laugh at this crazy story. I was stunned when I actually enjoyed this movie. After viewing this movie, I learned that it was originally a BBC mini-series which makes much more sense to me now. The premise would have made for a good mini series. Although this movie was good, which was against my expectations, I could see how crazy the pitch would have been to make it a movie.

Plot: The screenplay is actually very witty and cleverly written. There was actual character development past what we already knew about each character. Everyone was given time to develop, even Mary and Kitty Bennet. Several fictitious character developments are revealed such as a different story for Wickham’s behavior and even a different sexual orientation for one of the prominent characters. These changes actually made things more interesting since we’ve all seen the same story time and time again. It was also actually very interesting to see how the events would play out with these differences. It was as if we were living in the book. The dialogue was witty and the characters were very much in context with the book.

Performance: I’m a huge fan of the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice, I know I just made enemies of the Colin Firth BBC version, so my Mr. Darcy has always been Matthew Macfadyen. But this Darcy was actually very spot-on. He actually conveyed the sense of pride that he exhibits in the novel. In both the BBC and 2005 versions, I think Darcy is prideful yet still oh so dreamy but this Darcy conveys the sense of pride that alienates everyone in the beginning which overshadows his dreaminess. I think that this Darcy ( Eliot Cowan ) did a superb job. The rest of the characters were wonderfully cast, especially Wickham ( Tom Riley ) who gives us a nice complexity to his character. This whole cast was on par with both the BBC version and the 2005. This could have been a serious Pride & Prejudice remake and even thought there was a modern day ‘time traveler’ in the story, it still felt genuine and authentic.

Picture: This movie surprisingly had a nice budget. I was expecting a low budget mockery of Jane Austen that would have her rolling in her grave and the DVD cover art does not help it either. The movie actually had amazing set direction. The costumes and sets were perfect and if you read about this movie, almost every costume used was used on other movies, such as Emma and Pride & Prejudice to name a few. The movie was cut together so that I could not tell it was a mini-series to begin with. I only learned that after the fact. It did seem a little long (almost 3 hours) but I watched it over the span of two nights so I didn’t attribute it to that. There weren’t any extended fade-to-black transitions indicative of a mini-series/tv show made into a movie.

Basically, I was very surprised with this movie, and happy about it. I enjoyed this quite a lot. It was a fun and new way to watch a story I really love. I would recommend this to anyone who loves Pride & Prejudice or any other Jane Austen novel. I think both lovers of the BBC and 2005 versions will enjoy this film. Also if you like witty period pieces with a modern element, you will enjoy. Otherwise, I think it’s really just for the Pride & Prejudice audience. I think the wittiness and humor will be lost on a different audience.